It’s come down to this: winner takes all. Unable to close out their Western Conference Quarterfinal series in Denver on Thursday night, the Dallas Stars will host the seventh and deciding game at American Airlines Center on Saturday. Game time is 7:00 p.m. CDT. The game will be televised on ABC and streamed on ESPN+.
The Stars have had to play the duration of the series without the services of top defenseman Miro Heiskanen or high-scoring winger Jason Robertson. Both remain unavailable for the final game.
On Thursday, the Stars took a 4-3 leading into the third period. With their season on the line, the Avalanche rolled to a four-goal final stanza (the final two were empty net tallies) to skate off with a 7-4 win. Former Stars forward Valeri Nichushkin netted two goals. Nathan MacKinnon scored the game-winner. Roope Hintz notched two goals and an assist in a losing cause. Former Avs winger Mikko Rantanen also tallied for Dallas to go along with three helpers.
Four Keys to a Game 7 Win
Contain MacKinnon: So far, the Colorado superstar has racked up six goals in the series’ first six games. Nevertheless, the Stars are one win away from moving on to Western Conference Semifinal.
Hintz line:The Stars’ have had different contributors step up at timely moments across each of their three wins in the series. On Saturday, top line catalysts Hintz (four goals, three assists) and Rantanen (2g, 6a, 8 points) must duplicate what they did in most of Game 6. Others will have to chip in, too, such as defenseman Thomas Harley. Even so, the Stars’ hopes begin with the Hintz line along with goaltender Jake Oettinger (2.99 GAA so far, .909 save percentage).
Special teams: Dallas has produced more on special teams than Colorado for the series as a whole. The Stars are 5-for-19 on the power play through the first six games of the series. They’ve also yielded a shorthanded goal. Dallas is 16-for-19 so far on the penalty kill.
The old guard: Treams often rely heavily on their veterans to deliver in crunch time of a playoff series. This is especially true in Game 7. Team captain Jamie Benn (1g, 1a) has had an uneven series thus far. Dallas could really use a vintage Benn performance on Saturday. Fellow vet Tyler Seguin (2g, 1a) scored crucial goals in Games 2 and 3.
Projected Starting Lineup
64 Mikael Granlund – 24 Roope Hintz – 96 Mikko Rantanen
27 Mason Marchment – 95 Matt Duchene – 91 Tyler Seguin
14 Jamie Benn – 53 Wyatt Johnston – 63 Evgenii Dadonov
10 Oskar Back – 18 Sam Steel – 15 Colin Blackwell
23 Esa Lindell – 44 Cody Ceci
55 Thomas Harley – 46 Ilya Lyubushkin
6 Lian Bichsel – 28 Alex Petrovic
29 Jake Oettinger
[1 Casey DeSmith]
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