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No rolling a lucky '7' ... again |
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Rick Sadowski
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Another Game 7 disappointment for the Avalanche.
Rookie Joel Kiviranta scored at 7:24 of overtime to complete a hat trick and give the Dallas Stars a 5-4 win on Friday to take the best-of-7 series and advance to the Western Conference finals against Vancouver or Vegas, who played a Game 7 of their own later Friday night.
Kiviranta, who had one assist in two previous playoff games, tied the game 4-4 with 3:30 remaining in the third period, 10 seconds after Vladislav Namestnikov scored his second goal of the game to put the Avalanche ahead.
It reminded me of the Avalanche’s Game 7 first-round 5-4 overtime loss to Minnesota in 2014 when Erik Johnson scored late for a 4-3 lead, only to have the Wild tie matters and win in the extra period.
That was Nathan MacKinnon’s rookie year. The Avalanche also lost a seven-game series to the San Jose Sharks in the second round last season 3-2 at the Shark Tank.
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WESTERN CONFERENCE
SECOND ROUND
Best-of-7, Rogers Place, Edmonton
All times Mountain Time
Dallas wins series 4-3
Game 1 -- Dallas 5, Avalanche 3
Game 2 -- Dallas 5, Avalanche 2
Game 3 -- Avalanche 6, Dallas 4
Game 4 -- Dallas 5, Avalanche 4
Game 5 -- Avalanche 6, Dallas 3
Game 6 -- Avalanche 4, Dallas 1
Game 7 – Dallas 5, Avalanche 4 (OT)
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“It’s tough,” said MacKinnon, who had three shots on goal in 27:55 of ice time and didn’t collect a point for the first time this postseason.
With a point in each of the first 14 games MacKinnon tied Mark Messier (Edmonton in 1988) and Bobby Orr (Boston in 1970) for the second-longest postseason-opening streak in NHL history. Bryan Trottier had a point in all of the New York Islanders’ playoff games in 1981.
MacKinnon leads all postseason scorers with 25 points (nine goals, 16 assists).
“Two straight years being Game 7 losses …one-goal games,” he said. “It’s tough. We got to find a way to break through. There’s no moral victories here. We came here to win (the Stanley Cup) and we didn’t get the job done.”
Special teams were huge, as they are in any playoff series: the Avalanche were 1-for-4 on power plays Friday, just 4-for-32 in the series. The Stars were 2-for-2 Friday and 9-for-23 in the series.
The Avalanche took a 3-2 lead into the third period on Nazem Kadri’s power-play goal at 5:45 of the second in a back-and-forth game that began when Alexander Radulov gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 2:39 of the first period with a power-play goal.
The Avalanche answered with goals from Namestnikov and Andre Burakovsky to take a 2-1 lead into the second period.
Kiviranta tied it 2-2 at 3:06 of the second before Kadri scored his ninth goal of the postseason for the lead.
Radulov re-tied the game on a power play at 11:28 of the third before Namestnikov put the Avalanche in front again. It sure seemed like they were going to win this game and complete a comeback from a 3-1 series deficit.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” coach Jared Bednar said. “We set out at the start of the year with a goal to go and win the Stanley Cup and we didn’t achieve it. The reality of that is, only one team is going to achieve that goal. It doesn’t make it any easier at all.”
Bednar wouldn’t use all the injuries as an excuse, but c’mon: the Avalanche played Friday without seven players – goalies Philipp Grubauer and Pavel Francouz, captain Gabriel Landeskog and fellow forwards Matt Calvert and Joonas Donskoi, and defensemen Erik Johnson and Conor Timmins.
Bednar said after the game that none of them were on the verge of returning.
“We can make whatever excuses we want – injuries, this, that – our goal was our goal and we didn’t accomplish it,” he said. “So it hurts, it sucks. I look at our guys’ faces after the game and I can see the disappointment.
“They played their hearts out all year. I’m real proud of them too. (The injuries were) a lot to overcome in a short period of time … it just keeps adding and adding, it just gets harder and harder … I’m proud of how hard our guys played, the way they stuck with it. It’s just unfortunate because it’s an opportunity lost.
“That’s not taking anything away from Dallas; I tip my hat to Dallas. They’re well coached, they played hard, there’s no quit in their game.”
Third-string goalie Michael Hutchinson, in his third straight start, stopped 30 of 35 shots while Stars goalie Anton Khudobin turned aside 40 of 44 shots.
“For me, it was the same as Game 5 and Game 6,” Hutchinson said. “It’s either win and keep going or if you lose it’s out of time. It’s very unfortunate to come out on the short side of it. It stings right now.
“I don’t think there’s anyone on our team, with how banged up we were … guys stepped up and I don’t think anyone here was ready for our journey to end. That’s the really unfortunate part.”
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