Stars top Avalanche in Game 7 OT, advance to Western Conference Final

Joel Kiviranta scored 7:24 into overtime to complete his first NHL hat trick and the Dallas Stars advanced to the Western Conference Final with a 5-4 win against the Colorado Avalanche in Game 7 of their second-round series at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Friday.

Kiviranta, who was playing his third NHL postseason game, and first since Aug. 20, scored on a pass from Andrej Sekera for Dallas, the No. 3 seed in the West, which advanced to the conference final for the first time since 2008.
"Great pass behind the net and maybe the Avalanche] just a little bit lost me at the front," Kiviranta said. "Unforgettable moment. … I didn't know what to expect for this day. First Game 7 in my life, and it felt like a normal game for me. It was pretty fun."
***[WATCH: [All Stars vs. Avalanche highlights]*
Game 1 of the conference final against the Vegas Golden Knights or Vancouver Canucks will be in Edmonton, the hub city for the conference finals and Stanley Cup Final, on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, SN, CBC, TVA Sports).
The Golden Knights and Canucks played Game 7 on Friday (NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS).
"Obviously we were in the exact same situation last year and came out on the wrong end of it (lost to the St. Louis Blues in overtime in Game 7 after having 3-2 series lead), and then this year it's nice to get that win and move on," Stars captain Jamie Benn said. "Our team has put in a lot of hard work. That Colorado team is pretty [darn] good. It really took every guy in that dressing room to get that win, and I like how our group stuck with it tonight. And we had the secret Finnish weapon (Kiviranta) over here."

Alexander Radulov scored two goals for Dallas, and Anton Khudobin made 40 saves.
Vladislav Namestnikov scored twice, and Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky each had a goal and an assist for Colorado, the No. 2 seed. Michael Hutchinson, the third-string goalie, made 30 saves in his third straight start.
Colorado was without goalies Philipp Grubauer and Pavel Francouz, forwards Gabriel Landeskog, Joonas Donskoi and Matt Calvert, and defenseman Erik Johnson. Each was unfit to play.
"I know it's not the Cup Final or anything, but we felt like we could win and I still feel like we could have won. It's just unfortunate," Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon said. "I would have liked to see our team fully healthy, that's for sure. Lost a lot of key guys. That's the way it is. You can call it an excuse or whatever you want, but that's just the way it is. We lost a lot of key guys to our team."
Kiviranta tied the game 4-4 with 3:30 left in the third period, 10 seconds after Namestnikov scored with 3:40 remaining for a 4-3 lead.
Kadri made it 3-2 at 5:45 of the second period on a power play, his ninth goal of the playoffs, before Radulov tied it 3-3 on a power play at 11:28 of the third, his fifth goal of the series.
Radulov scored a power-play goal off a loose puck in front of the net at 2:39 of the first period for a 1-0 lead.
"It's a Game 7. It doesn't matter who goes out there," Radulov said. "I'll take it, but it doesn't matter who's scoring. What matters is we move on and win the series. That's the big thing for us."

Namestnikov scored on a deflection of an Ian Cole shot at 3:48 to tie the game 1-1.
Burakovsky scored off a turnover at 9:43 for a 2-1 lead with his fourth goal in six NHL Game 7s.
Kiviranta's first Stanley Cup Playoff goal tied it 2-2 at 3:06 of the second period.
"We talk about the timely goals they scored tonight that kept them in the game," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "I thought they did a real nice job of just keep coming at us, coming at us. In the end, they earned themselves the right to advance."
Kiviranta, who was in the lineup because forward Andrew Cogliano was unfit to play, is the seventh player in NHL history to score a hat trick in a Game 7, and the first rookie to do so.
"Did I expect a hat trick? No," Stars coach Rick Bowness said. "If I was a smart coach I'd have had him in a lot earlier, clearly. … There's a pretty good chance he'll be in the lineup for next game."

MacKinnon's point streak ended at 14 games (nine goals, 16 assists). It was the second longest to begin the playoffs in NHL history behind Bryan Trottier, who scored a point in 18 straight games for the New York Islanders in 1981.
Colorado, which lost Game 7 in the second round last season (3-2 to the San Jose Sharks), has lost five straight Game 7s.
"I mean, two straight years, Game 7 losses, one-goal games," MacKinnon said. "It's tough. We've got to find a way to break through. There's no moral victories here. We came here to win and we didn't get the job done."
NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen and staff writer Tracey Myers contributed to this report