The Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche will play Game 7 of the Western Conference First Round at American Airlines Arena in Dallas on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS).
The Avalanche forced the deciding game with a 7-4 win in Game 6 at Ball Arena on Thursday.
“Now we’ve got a great opportunity. Home for Game. 7,” said Dallas coach Pete DeBoer, who is 8-0 in Game 7s. “We’ve been in this situation before. No one gave us a chance to win this series, and here we are with one game at home to advance, so that’s a great situation to be in.
”I’d rather win in six. I like Game 7s at home, I can tell you that. That’s an advantage for us being at home.”
This is the fourth time the Stars and Avalanche will play a Game 7, with Dallas winning the previous three. The most recent meeting was in the second round in 2020, which the Stars won 5-4 in overtime. Joel Kiviranta, who scored the series-winning goal for the Stars, is on the Avalanche. The other two games were in the conference final in 1999 and 2000.
The Stars are 8-9 all-time in Game 7, their most recent a 2-1 win against the Vegas Golden Knights in the first round last season. Forwards Mikko Rantanen, Tyler Seguin and defenseman Cody Ceci lead the Stars with three points each in Game 7. Rantanen’s points all came for the Avalanche, while Ceci’s points came with the Edmonton Oilers.
“It’s two good teams, and personally, not surprised it’s going to Game 7,” Rantanen said. “It’s two really good teams. It’s good for the hockey world to see this series. Yeah, we’ve got to be reset now and get ready for Saturday.”
Stars goalie Jake Oettinger is 2-1 with a 1.54 goals-against average and .956 save percentage in Game 7.
“We’ve all been there before,” Oettinger said. “We’ve won our last two Game 7s. We all know what we need to do to beat these guys, and we know what we do when they can run it up on us, so we’ve got to play the right way if we want a chance to win."
The Avalanche are 6-10 all-time in Game 7 and have lost six in a row. Their most recent Game 7 win came in the conference semifinals against the San Jose Sharks in 2002.
Kiviranta and forward Brock Nelson lead all Avalanche skaters with three points each in Game 7. Kiviranta’s three points came for Dallas when he scored a hat trick against the Avalanche in 2020.
All of Nelson’s Game 7 points came with the New York Islanders. Forward Nathan MacKinnon has one assist in four Game 7s and defenseman Cale Makar has no points in three.
Coach Jared Bednar is 0-3 in Game 7.
The winner will advance to the Western Conference Second Round and play either the Winnipeg Jets or St. Louis Blues. The Jets have a 3-2 lead in that best-of-7 series entering Game 6 on Friday in St. Louis (8 p.m. ET; FDSNMW, MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).
