Another defeat means Stars face familiar reality of win-or-go-home Game 7

The Stars have thrived on adversity all season.
Well, they've got plenty now.
Dallas lost 4-1 to Colorado in Game 6 of their best-of-seven second round playoff series Wednesday and now faces a huge Game 7 Friday. The Stars had a 3-1 lead in the series and have lost the past two games. They have only blown a 3-1 series lead once in franchise history, and not since moving from Minnesota to Dallas in 1993. They have lost Game 7s to St. Louis last season and in 2016, and those memories are fresh in the mind of Stars' fans.

Bottom line, the season will look very disappointing if it ends Friday night.
"I mean, we all know what happened last year," Stars center Tyler Seguin said of losing Games 6 and 7 to the Blues. "We were in this position, a chance to win it in Game 6, on home ice. Technically, you could say tonight was home ice. Game 7, we lost last year. So we have a chance to redeem ourselves.

"I definitely do think, as an organization, we've been trending in the right way, and this is the next step."
It's difficult to encapsulate all that has happened in the past two games. Colorado has been battling all manner of injury and has lost both of its top two goalies. As a result, the Avalanche have had to rely on 30-year-old backup Michael Hutchinson, who had not started a playoff game before this year. Hutchinson has won both games and stopped 27 of 28 shots on Wednesday.
The Stars, meanwhile, decided to start Ben Bishop in Game 5 Monday and saw the veteran surrender four goals in the first period. Anton Khudobin was back in net on Wednesday and Bishop was proclaimed "unfit to play," so fans had to go through the mental machinations of whether it was a good idea to play him Monday.
Stars interim coach Rick Bowness defended the decision, and pointed to the fact team play was the real concern in Game 5, and he's right about that. But it's just one more distraction that has to be dealt with as the team prepares for one of the biggest games in the past decade.
General manager Jim Nill took over in 2013 and immediately named Jamie Benn captain. Nill also made the trade to get Seguin that season and paved the way for John Klingberg to come over from Sweden in 2014. That group has been at the heart of the Stars for six seasons, and would really like a breakthrough season.

It sure look liked that moment was happening after a 5-4 win put Dallas one game away from the conference finals.
However, the Stars were not ready to play in Game 5, and simply couldn't get the job done in Game 6. Dallas put Colorado on the power play for 10 minutes on Wednesday. And while the penalty killing was great and the Avalanche couldn't score with the man advantage, all of the shorthanded time affected the lines and the distribution of minutes.
Players like Seguin, Benn, Klingberg, Alexander Radulov and Denis Gurianov were spending too much time on the bench, and it seemed to take flow out of the Stars' game.
"It's not ideal, we have too key many guys sitting on the bench," Bowness said. "We shot ourselves in the foot with the penalties. Whether they score or not, their best players are on the ice a lot and they're getting into the game and they're giving their team momentum."
That said, the coach wasn't happy with how his "best players" responded to the challenge. Seguin, Benn and Radulov had three shots on goal and no points Wednesday. That's after getting one goal Monday and combining for a minus-7 as a line.

"We need them to produce, it's as simple as that," Bowness said. "Their top players are producing and our top players are not. Don't sugar coat it, it is what it is. Your top players have to carry you at this time."
The Avalanche are certainly getting big plays from their top forwards. Nathan MacKinnon is leading the playoffs in scoring with 25 points in 14 games and had a goal and an assist on Wednesday. MacKinnon made a great play to muscle a puck away from Klingberg to set up a Mikko Rantanen goal early in the third period that really was the back-breaker.
In the meantime, the Stars never were able to get the pressure on Hutchinson.
"Give Colorado a lot of credit, they're doing a great job of protecting and they're not giving us much," Bowness said. "But we're going to have to battle harder. One thing we preach as coaches is to never pass up an opportunity to put the puck on net. If you get too cute, you're playing right into their hands. We're making it an easier night on the goalie than it should be. We've got to make the might a lot harder for him."
The Avalanche deserve a lot of credit. They have lost several key players, including defenseman Erik Johnson. On Wednesday, captain Gabriel Landeskog was cut by a skate and had to leave the game. Yet, they are persevering. For much of the playoffs, that's been the Stars' identity. Now, they have to find a way to defy the odds in what might be one of the biggest games for the franchise in the past decade.

As the team was preparing for Game 6, Bowness was asked how important it is for this group to break through the wall and get to the third round of the playoffs for the first time since 2008 -- and he gave a pretty deep answer.
"We've been talking about that before the pause," Bowness said. "We've been talking about it since camp."
"It's not like we're throwing it in anyone's face, what we're trying to do is educate them and help them understand how hard it is to win in this league, how hard it is to move on," Bowness said of prodding players to take the next step. "If we want to get by this second round, it's hard. That's a great hockey club over there. You can't let up. When you let up against a good club, you pay the price. When you get to that final four, there's a huge price to pay. That's something we've been talking about for quite a while, and we're just going to keep pushing."
Right now, they're down to one last push, and they'll have to handle all of the pressure that comes with it.
"We've put ourselves in this position, and now we have to deal with it," Bowness said. "Somebody is going home Saturday, so you put your best game on the ice and you see what happens."

Game 7: Stars vs. Avalanche (series tied 3-3)

Friday, TBA
TV:TBA
Radio:The Ticket 96.7-FM, 1310-AM
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika, and listen to his podcast.