The Dallas Stars finally get a little bit of a breather after avoiding another Game 7 on the way to their second Western Conference Final in a row.
They knocked out the last two Stanley Cup champions while playing 13 games in 26 nights. The last one stretched past midnight into early Saturday, when Matt Duchene's game-winning goal in double overtime ended Game 6 at Colorado. That came nearly an hour after Dallas thought it had won in the first extra period against the 2022 champs.
Dallas began these playoffs with a seven-game series over the Vegas Golden Knights, who last year beat the Stars in a six-game West final and then won the Stanley Cup.
“For the guys that were here last year, all we wanted was an opportunity to be in the position that we were last year, and snap your fingers and we’re back,” Stars goalie Jake Oettinger said. "Now it’s up to us to change the ending. We couldn’t ask for more than just another opportunity to get another run at it.”
The top-seeded Stars will host the first two games of the West final next week against Edmonton or Vancouver. The Canucks took a 3-2 lead in that second-round series into Game 6 on Saturday night.
While Stars coach Pete DeBoer has never lost a Game 7, including one already this postseason against Vegas, they didn't particularly want to have to play another one.
“I don’t know what it is, in how many days, but it seems like it’s been a lot,” forward Mason Marchment said. "The grind is what makes it the playoffs, right? So just keep going and get ready for the next round.”
Marchment put a puck in the net 12 1/2 minutes into the first overtime against the Avs, but on-ice officials immediately waved off the goal and that call stood after replay review. The ruling was that Duchene, whose skates were outside the crease while jostling with defenseman Cale Makar, had impaired goalie Alexandar Georgiev's ability to try to make a play.
