Blackwell scores 17:46 into OT as Stars beat Avalanche 4-3 to even 1st-round NHL playoffs series 1-1

DALLAS (AP) — Colin Blackwell scored 17:46 into overtime and the Dallas Stars beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 in Game 2 on Monday night to even up their first-round Western Conference series.

Blackwell initially took a shot that ricocheted off teammate Sam Steel and Avs defenseman Samuel Girard in front of the net. But with the puck rolling loose on the ice, the fourth-line forward circled around and knocked it in for the winner.

“It’s been a long season, and not playing the first game, stuff like that, just kind of been in and out of the lineup toward the end here,” Blackwell said. “I always felt my game’s kinda built for the playoffs and stuff along those lines. I love rising to the occasion and playing in moments like this.”

Tyler Seguin, Thomas Harley and Evgenii Dadonov also had goals for Dallas, which avoided losing the first two games at home in its opening-round series for the second year in a row. The Stars did open with their eighth consecutive Game 1 loss since 2022, after going into this postseason with a seven-game losing streak (0-5-2).

“Obviously it’s a fresh new season in the playoffs, but it’s been a little bit since we won a game,” Seguin said. “It’s almost like going through a slump. You’ve got to try to just break it and simplify. We did that tonight and have something great to build off of.”

Colorado had finished the final 1:26 of regulation and first 34 seconds of overtime on a power play after a hooking penalty against Mikko Rantenen, who the Avalanche traded on Jan. 24 to Carolina in the East, where he played only 13 games before getting traded March 7 back to the Central Division to Dallas and getting a new $96 million, eight-year contract.

Stars goalie Jake Oettinger stopped 34 shots. Mackenzie Blackwood had 35 saves in his second career playoff game, but the final shot went off his left shoulder.

Nathan MacKinnon scored on a power play for his third goal in this series for the Avalanche, and his 51st in the NHL playoffs. Jack Drury and Logan O’Connor also scored.

“Every time you lose a game that you play pretty good, you lose an opportunity to take control of a series,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said.

The series switches to Denver for Game 3 on Wednesday night, when there is a chance that Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog could play for the first time in nearly three years. His last game was June 26, 2022, when they beat Tampa Bay 2-1 in Game 6 to clinch the Stanley Cup, before a chronic right knee injury that led to two surgeries and multiple comeback attempts.

Landeskog was activated off injured reserve early Monday, but was a scratch for the game after being first Colorado skater to take the ice for pregame warmups. Bednar said the captain wanted to skate in warmups.

O’Connor had a go-ahead goal in the final minute of the second period with Mason Marchment draped around him for a 3-2 lead, not long after the Stars used a timeout in hopes of taking advantage of a short two-man advantage but coming up empty on nearly four minutes on the power play.

Dallas took an advantage with 4:48 left in the second period, and almost immediately Blackwood made a sliding kick save to deny Marchment. There was only seven seconds left on power play when Colorado got another penalty, and Stars coach Pete DeBoer called timeout. But Charlie Coyle won the ensuing faceoff for the Avs, and they quickly erased the two-man advantage.

Harley's goal 3:40 in the second period gave Dallas its first lead in the series, but 62 seconds later Drury’s goal tied the game at 2 with Rantanen right by him. Drury came to Colorado from Carolina as part of the initial trade that sent Rantanen to the Hurricanes.

The Stars matched MacKinnon’s goal with a power play in the final minute of the first period. Captain Jamie Benn skated behind the net, passed to Marchment in the middle of the right circle before he pushed the puck across to Seguin in the opposite circle for the slap shot.

Seguin was in only his third game since missing 58 games over 4 1/2 months because of left hip surgery. He returned for the regular season finale last Wednesday, and hadn't scored since the day after Thanksgiving.

“Honestly I think scoring a goal is almost like the last thing you almost kind of think of,” he said. “There’s so many things to getting back in the lineup that you’re thinking about, whether it’s your body or details of the game. And when you get a goal, that’s something again to build off of.”

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Dallas Stars players celebrate a game-winning goal by Colin Blackwell, not pictured, during overtime in Game 2 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche early Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Dallas Stars center Colin Blackwell, right, is congratulated by teammates center Tyler Seguin (91) and goaltender Jake Oettinger (29) after scoring the game-winning goal against the Colorado Avalanche during overtime in Game 2 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series early Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A shot by Dallas Stars center Colin Blackwell (15) gets by Colorado Avalanche goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, right, for the game-winning goal during overtime in Game 2 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series early Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Dallas Stars center Colin Blackwell (15) celebrates his game-winning goal with teammates defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin (46) and center Sam Steel (18) during overtime in Game 2 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche early Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Dallas Stars right wing Evgenii Dadonov (63) sneaks the puck by Colorado Avalanche goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood (39) for a goal as left wing Joel Kiviranta (94) tries to defend during the third period in Game 2 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Monday, April 21, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Dallas Stars center Colin Blackwell (15) competes for possession against Colorado Avalanche center Martin Necas (88) during the first period in Game 2 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Monday, April 21, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A shot by Dallas Stars center Tyler Seguin, not visible, gets by Colorado Avalanche goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood (39) for a power play goal during the first period in Game 2 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Monday, April 21, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Ryan Lindgren, left, reacts after shot by teammate center Jack Drury, not visible, entered the net of Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger, right, for a goal during the second period in Game 2 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Monday, April 21, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Dallas Stars center Colin Blackwell (15) skates away from the puck after taking it from Colorado Avalanche center Martin Necas during the first period in Game 2 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Monday, April 21, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson, left, and Dallas Stars right wing Mikko Rantanen (96) collide while competing for the puck during the first period in Game 2 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Monday, April 21, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Dallas Stars players celebrate a power play goal by center Tyler Seguin, second from right, during the first period in Game 2 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche Monday, April 21, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Colorado Avalanche center Martin Necas (88) and Dallas Stars center Sam Steel (18) compete for possession as referee Graham Skilliter (24) tries to get away during the first period in Game 2 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Monday, April 21, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Colorado Avalanche players celebrate a goal by Logan O'Connor (25) as Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger (29) skates on his crease during the second period in Game 2 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Monday, April 21, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Colorado Avalanche right wing Logan O'Connor, bottom, reacts after scoring a goal against the Dallas Stars during the second period in Game 2 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Monday, April 21, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Becky Pepper-Jackson finished third in the discus throw in West Virginia last year though she was in just her first year of high school. Now a 15-year-old sophomore, Pepper-Jackson is aware that her upcoming season could be her last.

West Virginia has banned transgender girls like Pepper-Jackson from competing in girls and women's sports, and is among the more than two dozen states with similar laws. Though the West Virginia law has been blocked by lower courts, the outcome could be different at the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, which has allowed multiple restrictions on transgender people to be enforced in the past year.

The justices are hearing arguments Tuesday in two cases over whether the sports bans violate the Constitution or the landmark federal law known as Title IX that prohibits sex discrimination in education. The second case comes from Idaho, where college student Lindsay Hecox challenged that state's law.

Decisions are expected by early summer.

President Donald Trump's Republican administration has targeted transgender Americans from the first day of his second term, including ousting transgender people from the military and declaring that gender is immutable and determined at birth.

Pepper-Jackson has become the face of the nationwide battle over the participation of transgender girls in athletics that has played out at both the state and federal levels as Republicans have leveraged the issue as a fight for athletic fairness for women and girls.

“I think it’s something that needs to be done,” Pepper-Jackson said in an interview with The Associated Press that was conducted over Zoom. “It’s something I’m here to do because ... this is important to me. I know it’s important to other people. So, like, I’m here for it.”

She sat alongside her mother, Heather Jackson, on a sofa in their home just outside Bridgeport, a rural West Virginia community about 40 miles southwest of Morgantown, to talk about a legal fight that began when she was a middle schooler who finished near the back of the pack in cross-country races.

Pepper-Jackson has grown into a competitive discus and shot put thrower. In addition to the bronze medal in the discus, she finished eighth among shot putters.

She attributes her success to hard work, practicing at school and in her backyard, and lifting weights. Pepper-Jackson has been taking puberty-blocking medication and has publicly identified as a girl since she was in the third grade, though the Supreme Court's decision in June upholding state bans on gender-affirming medical treatment for minors has forced her to go out of state for care.

Her very improvement as an athlete has been cited as a reason she should not be allowed to compete against girls.

“There are immutable physical and biological characteristic differences between men and women that make men bigger, stronger, and faster than women. And if we allow biological males to play sports against biological females, those differences will erode the ability and the places for women in these sports which we have fought so hard for over the last 50 years,” West Virginia's attorney general, JB McCuskey, said in an AP interview. McCuskey said he is not aware of any other transgender athlete in the state who has competed or is trying to compete in girls or women’s sports.

Despite the small numbers of transgender athletes, the issue has taken on outsize importance. The NCAA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees banned transgender women from women's sports after Trump signed an executive order aimed at barring their participation.

The public generally is supportive of the limits. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in October 2025 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults “strongly” or “somewhat” favored requiring transgender children and teenagers to only compete on sports teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with, while about 2 in 10 were “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed and about one-quarter did not have an opinion.

About 2.1 million adults, or 0.8%, and 724,000 people age 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

Those allied with the administration on the issue paint it in broader terms than just sports, pointing to state laws, Trump administration policies and court rulings against transgender people.

"I think there are cultural, political, legal headwinds all supporting this notion that it’s just a lie that a man can be a woman," said John Bursch, a lawyer with the conservative Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom that has led the legal campaign against transgender people. “And if we want a society that respects women and girls, then we need to come to terms with that truth. And the sooner that we do that, the better it will be for women everywhere, whether that be in high school sports teams, high school locker rooms and showers, abused women’s shelters, women’s prisons.”

But Heather Jackson offered different terms to describe the effort to keep her daughter off West Virginia's playing fields.

“Hatred. It’s nothing but hatred,” she said. "This community is the community du jour. We have a long history of isolating marginalized parts of the community.”

Pepper-Jackson has seen some of the uglier side of the debate on display, including when a competitor wore a T-shirt at the championship meet that said, “Men Don't Belong in Women's Sports.”

“I wish these people would educate themselves. Just so they would know that I’m just there to have a good time. That’s it. But it just, it hurts sometimes, like, it gets to me sometimes, but I try to brush it off,” she said.

One schoolmate, identified as A.C. in court papers, said Pepper-Jackson has herself used graphic language in sexually bullying her teammates.

Asked whether she said any of what is alleged, Pepper-Jackson said, “I did not. And the school ruled that there was no evidence to prove that it was true.”

The legal fight will turn on whether the Constitution's equal protection clause or the Title IX anti-discrimination law protects transgender people.

The court ruled in 2020 that workplace discrimination against transgender people is sex discrimination, but refused to extend the logic of that decision to the case over health care for transgender minors.

The court has been deluged by dueling legal briefs from Republican- and Democratic-led states, members of Congress, athletes, doctors, scientists and scholars.

The outcome also could influence separate legal efforts seeking to bar transgender athletes in states that have continued to allow them to compete.

If Pepper-Jackson is forced to stop competing, she said she will still be able to lift weights and continue playing trumpet in the school concert and jazz bands.

“It will hurt a lot, and I know it will, but that’s what I’ll have to do,” she said.

Heather Jackson, left, and Becky Pepper-Jackson pose for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Heather Jackson, left, and Becky Pepper-Jackson pose for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Becky Pepper-Jackson poses for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The Supreme Court stands is Washington, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FILE - Protestors hold signs during a rally at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on March 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson, file)