3 Keys: Stars vs. Avalanche, Game 7 of Western Second Round

No. 3 Stars vs. No. 2 Avalanche
4 p.m. ET; USA, SN, TVAS
Best-of-7 series tied, 3-3

The Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars will look to advance to the Western Conference Final when they play Game 7 of the second round at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Friday.
Colorado hasn't made the conference final since 2002, when it lost to the Detroit Red Wings in seven games. Dallas last made it in 2008, when it also lost to the Red Wings in six games.
Anton Khudobin will make his 10th start in the past 11 games for the Stars. He is 7-5 with a 2.88 goals-against average and .909 save percentage in 13 postseason games (12 starts).
Avalanche coach Jared Bednar would not say who his starting goalie would be. Michael Hutchinson has started the past two games, making 31 saves in a 6-3 win in Game 5 and 27 saves in a 4-1 victory in Game 6.
Philipp Grubauer has been unfit to play since sustaining an apparent lower-body injury in the second period of Game 1. Pavel Francouz replaced Grubauer and started the next three games for Colorado, but he was pulled in the third period of Game 4 and was unfit to play Games 5 and 6.
As part of the NHL Return to Play Plan, a team is not permitted to disclose player injury or illness information.
Teams that win Games 5 and 6 after trailing a series 3-1 are 29-28 (50.8 percent) winning a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series. This is the first series to reach Game 7 this season after six did so last season.
Here are 3 keys for Game 7:

1. Colorado staying disciplined

The Avalanche have held the Stars to four goals in the past two games after Dallas scored 19 in the first four games of the series. A big part of their success in Game 6 was taking one minor penalty against the Stars, who are 13-for-51 (25.5 percent) on the power play in the postseason.
"That was one of the keys of the game that we discussed earlier is staying disciplined," Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri said Thursday. "Obviously, we respect their power play and we don't want those guys constantly on the ice. It was just part of the game plan and I think we executed it very well."

2. Dallas' top line

Stars coach Rick Bowness said after Game 6 that their top line of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov has to produce more. In the past three games, they have combined for three points (two goals, one assist), including zero from Seguin, after getting 15 (six goals, nine assists) in the first three games of the series.
"We've been a little stale as of late," Benn said Thursday. "We've got to find ways to create more. It comes down to the little things like details and battles, winning all the small parts of the game to help your team win and help your line be better."

3. Power play

The Avalanche are 3-for-28 with the man-advantage in the series, but Bednar isn't planning on making any changes to their first and second units.
"I believe in our guys," Bednar said Thursday. "Both units have the ability to score, and we'll keep looking at it, keep trying to give them tidbits of info to help them. It's going to come down to execution and someone finishing off a chance. Last night in particular, we weren't as crisp with the puck as we could've been. We had unforced turnovers. It's coming down to one game, and we have to rely on our stars to get the job done."

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn -- Tyler Seguin -- Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark -- Joe Pavelski -- Denis Gurianov
Jason Dickinson -- Roope Hintz -- Corey Perry
Andrew Cogliano -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau
Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg
Jamie Oleksiak -- Miro Heiskanen
Andrej Sekera -- Taylor Fedun
Anton Khudobin
Jake Oettinger
Scratched:Nick Caamano, Ty Dellandrea, Justin Dowling, Joel Kiviranta, Jason Robertson, Gavin Bayreuther, Joel Hanley, Thomas Harley, Landon Bow
Unfit to play:Ben Bishop, Stephen Johns

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Andre Burakovsky -- Nazem Kadri -- Valeri Nichushkin
Tyson Jost -- J.T. Compher -- Vladislav Namestnikov
Matt Nieto -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Logan O'Connor
Ryan Graves -- Cale Makar
Samuel Girard -- Ian Cole
Nikita Zadorov -- Kevin Connauton
Michael Hutchinson
Hunter Miska
Scratched:Mark Barberio, Shane Bowers, Bowen Byram, Sheldon Dries, Anton Lindholm, T.J. Tynan
Unfit to play:Philipp Grubauer, Pavel Francouz, Erik Johnson, Matt Calvert, Joonas Donskoi, Conor Timmins
Status report
Landeskog, who was cut by the skate of Makar late in the second period in Game 6, will be a game-time decision. … Bednar said Timmins, a defenseman who also was injured in the second period of Game 6, could play.