On Friday, the No. 3 seed Dallas Stars defeated the No. 2 seed Colorado Avalanche 5-4 in overtime in Game 7 of the Western Conference Second Round at Rogers Place in Edmonton, the hub city for the West. That was by the No. 1 seed Vegas Golden Knights defeating the No. 5 seed Vancouver Canucks 3-0 in Game 7 of the West second round, also at Rogers Place.
Joel Kiviranta completed a hat trick for the Stars 7:24 into overtime to put Dallas into the Western Conference Final.
"This is the moment you dream about when you are a young kid," Kiviranta said. "Today was the day I played the first Game 7 in my life, and I didn't kinow what to expect. It was just a normal hockey game for me."
Dallas will play Vegas in Game 1 in Edmonton on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, SN, CBC, TVAS).
The Stars-Avalanche game was the first Game 7 in NHL history to be played in a city not home to either team. It also was the first Game 7 in Edmonton since April 16, 1990, when the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Winnipeg Jets 4-1 in Game 7 of the Smythe Division Semifinals at Northlands Coliseum.
The Avalanche and Stars each lost in Game 7 of the second round last season.
The No. 1 seed Philadelphia Flyers and No. 6 seed New York Islanders will cap the weekend of Game 7s on Saturday, when they play the deciding game of the Eastern Conference Second Round at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, the hub city for the East (7:30 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, TVAS). The winner of that game will play the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final at Rogers Place.
"There's nothing better than a Game 7," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said after New York's 5-4 double-overtime loss in Game 6 on Thursday. "... This is a very good hockey team. They're a No. 1 seed. There's a reason they're around. We got on them early, and they've beaten us three times and they've been in overtime. There's two evenly-matched teams, so if you really look at the big picture, it's probably fitting that it is a Game 7."
The fact all three series reached Game 7 was also historic, because the Avalanche, Canucks and Flyers each trailed 3-1 in their respective series. It's the second time in NHL history three teams have rallied after being down 3-1 to force Game 7s in the same round. Four teams did it in the 1992 Division Semifinals, with three of those teams winning the series.
This is also the first time since 2014 that the second round has had three Game 7s and the sixth time that the round had three Game 7s (1986, 1987, 2001, 2009 and 2014).
The Flyers, who have won Games 5 and 6 in overtime, could become the second team to win three straight games in overtime when facing elimination and win a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series. The Canucks did so in the 1994 Western Conference Quarterfinals against the Calgary Flames. Philadelphia could also become the second team to win four games of a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series in overtime. The Toronto Maple Leafs did so in the 1951 Stanley Cup Final against the Montreal Canadiens (all five games were decided in overtime).
This season marks the fifth time in the past seven postseasons that the second round has featured multiple Game 7s; there were three in 2014 and two each in 2016, 2017 and 2019. Multiple Game 7s in the second round, then known as the conference semifinals, occurred five times in 19 postseasons from 1994-2013 (2001, 2002, 2009, 2010 and 2013).
The most Game 7s in any round is six. That happened in the 1992 division semifinals, when six of eight opening-round series required Game 7.
