DENVER — One of the most entertaining hockey games of the playoffs ended in a crushing finish for the Dallas Stars.
Despite coming back from a two-goal deficit and taking a lead entering the third period, a fluke goal gave Colorado the lead with 10 minutes remaining as it secured the 7-4 victory.
Sam Steel attempted to clear the puck but bounced it off teammate Colin Blackwell, and the puck went into the net to make it 5-4.
The series is now tied 3-3 and returns to Dallas for a win-or-go-home Game 7 at 7 p.m. Saturday at American Airlines Center.
Related:After bad bounce dooms Stars in Colorado, Dallas will need to make its own luck in Game 7
Here are five thoughts from the Stars’ Game 6 loss:
Puck luck strikes again
Throughout the series, the team with the better puck luck has won each game. The Avalanche certainly had it Thursday.
Colorado took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Valeri Nichuskin that bounced off Ilya Lyubushkin’s skate and in. Later in the first period, Cale Makar whiffed on a shot, but the puck rolled right to Artturi Lehkonen, who was able to score.
The Avalanche were the far better team in the first period, so they created their own luck and deserved to be up.
But even when Dallas surged back furiously, puck luck continued to favor Colorado.
With about 11 minutes left in regulation, the Stars attempted to clear a loose puck in front of the net. But Steel’s clear deflected off Blackwell and went in. Nathan MacKinnon was credited with the goal, but it was flagged as an own goal by Dallas.
Absolutely Finn-tastic
Six months to the day that the Stars played their first of two games in Tampere, Finland, Dallas’ Finnish players took over, almost 5,000 miles away.
Two of the Stars’ Finns didn’t get to make that trip, as Mikael Granlund played for the San Jose Sharks at the time, and Mikko Rantanen played for the Colorado Avalanche. It took both forwards some time to click into Dallas’ system after being traded to the Stars ahead of the trade deadline.
But Thursday showed they have reached that point.
The Stars’ new top line of Granlund, Rantanen and Roope Hintz combined for four goals in the second period of Game 6, helping the Stars surge back from a 2-0 deficit at the first intermission.
Hintz scored the first goal on the power play. Granlund scored the second on a breakaway just over two minutes later. Hintz added a third later in the period after Rantanen won a battle on the boards to feed him. And with a minute left in the period, Hintz returned the favor for Rantanen.
The line finished with nine total points, with Hintz and Rantanen having four apiece and Granlund scoring just the lone goal. Rantanen and Hintz became the first teammates in NHL history to each record four points in a playoff period.
Stars survive nightmare start
The Stars knew they’d get Colorado‘s best game to start, and Dallas was not quite equipped to handle it.
The Avalanche took a 2-0 lead in the first period and outshot Dallas 19-10. The Avalanche had a 10-1 advantage in high-danger scoring chances in the frame as well.
The first goal came 6:29 into the contest when Nichushkin’s shot bounced off Lyubushkin’s skate and in. Colorado followed it up with a second goal with 1:20 left in the first by Lehkonen.
Dallas’ first 20 minutes seemed eerily similar to the Stars’ pathetic 4-0 loss to the Avalanche in Game 4. But instead of rolling over when they were down, Dallas surged back, tying the game less than four minutes into the second period.
Oettinger did enough to win
Stars coach Pete DeBoer loves to say his goalie Jake Oettinger gets better as each playoff series progresses.
That was on full display Thursday.
Oettinger was swarmed with shots from the start, facing 35 shots on goal through the first two periods. He finished with a whopping 46 saves, and while he allowed five goals, three of them were awkward bounces or off his teammates. The final two goals were empty-netters.
The Stars will need yet another stellar performance from their netminder Saturday to avoid their season’s end.
Attention turns to injured players
It was unclear whether Dallas would be able to win a playoff series without Miro Heiskanen, and through six games, it remains to be seen whether it’s possible.
The Stars’ defense has shown some holes in its losses this series, including giving up 48 shots on goal Thursday, and some miscommunication that led to goals.
Heiskanen has been day-to-day since the beginning of the series but still hasn’t played since late January.
Defenseman Lian Bichsel suffered an upper-body injury during the second period Thursday, and the Stars had to rotate just five defensemen for much of the period. Bichsel returned for the start of the third period.
But with him possibly not 100%, the Stars could use Heiskanen back Saturday.
Otherwise, his return may not come until the fall.
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