Fitting Finnish: Rookie Kiviranta becomes hero in Stars' wild Game 7 win

Well, that was pretty fitting.
In a season where the Stars have been comeback darlings, and everyone throughout the lineup has contributed -- Joel Kiviranta converted an Andrej Sekera pass at 7:24 of overtime to beat the Colorado Avalanche in Game 7, 5-4, and send the team to the Western Conference final for the first time since 2008.

Kiviranta, who was called into service because of an injury to Andrew Cogliano, finished with a hat trick. The 24-year-old Finn, who signed with the Stars as a free agent last summer, played most of the season in the AHL and was one of the team's reserves in the Edmonton bubble. But given a chance to step into the lineup, Kiviranta was one of the team's best players from the opening drop of the puck, scoring on a nice redirection in the second period, cleaning up a rebound from a hard angle to tie the game with 3:30 remaining in regulation -- and then cashing in the game-winner in the most unexpected manner.
Sekera, who had no points in 15 playoff games before Friday, snuck up behind the attacking net, and held the puck, waiting for a player to get open. Kiviranta backed off about 10 feet from the goal mouth to find a hole in the defense and then banged in the game-winer.
"To tell you that we practice Andrej behind the offensive net making those saucer passes…no," Stars interim coach Rick Bowness said. "That's just the way it works out. Andrej is a veteran and he made a great play. That's just the confidence the guys have right now. That's overtime hockey and that's bubble hockey.
"You just don't know what to expect, so you kind of roll with it."
The Stars have done that to a tee. In a year where they have overcome incredible adversity, they seem just fine living in the middle of a chaotic swirl. Friday was the perfect example. Dallas had a 3-1 lead on the Avalanche in the best-of-seven series, and then lost Games 5 and 6. That forced Game 7, and Colorado was the better team.
The Avalanche had a 44-36 advantage in shots on goal and an 84-65 advantage in shot attempts. They had a 4-3 lead with 3:40 remaining in the third period, and looked like they would kick the Stars in the gut once again. Dallas lost in double overtime last season to St. Louis in Game 7.

But 10 seconds after the Avalanche took the lead, Kiviranta finished off a dazzling rush by hammering in a Roope Hintz rebound to tie the game and send a sigh of relief through a franchise that has been though a lot in the past decade.
"We were in the same situation last year and came out on the wrong end of it, and this year it's nice to get that win and move on," said captain Jamie Benn. "Our team has put in a lot of hard work. That Colorado team is pretty damn good and it really took every guy in that dressing room to get that win."
"I like how our group stuck with it tonight," Benn added while sitting next to Kiviranta, "And we had that secret Finnish weapon over here."
It has been a surreal year. The team played before 85,630 fans at the Winter Classic in the Cotton Bowl and has played before zero fans in the bubble. It has seen veterans like Joe Pavelski and Corey Perry step up in the post-season, and youngsters like Denis Gurianov and Roope Hintz become electric goal scorers throughout the year. It has seen Anton Khudobin step in for injured Ben Bishop and take over in the first real playoff experience for the 34-year-old native of Kazakhstan.
Khudobin made 40 saves on Friday, and that was just enough to help the Stars move forward.
Colorado battled through its own issues and had to rely on No. 3 goalie Michael Hutchinson. On Friday, the Avalanche was missing captain Gabriel Landeskog with a leg injury. The Stars, meanwhile, were missing Bishop, defenseman Stephen Johns and both Cogliano and Taylor Fedun.
But as Bowness always says, that just means an opportunity for another player.
That player was Kiviranta, and the scrappy two-way forward seized it. In 14:51, Kiviranta had five shots on goal and four hits. He clearly showed some offensive touch that resulted in 12 goals in 48 AHL games, but his real calling card is smart play, and that's one of the reasons Bowness put him on a line with Hintz and Gurianov.

"We know what we're going to get every shift from him. The goals are just an added bonus, but the effort and the discipline he plays with was expected," Bowness said. "Whenever we played him, we always had a ton of confidence in him. There was a game in Colorado earlier in the year when we brought him up and Joe Pavelski tapped me and said, `Bones, give me Joel.' So players have a tremendous amount of confidence in Kivi. He's not intimidated by one thing, he's a great little competitor."
Still, the young Finn said it was a pretty intense day.
"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 know what to expect."
Neither did his teammates, but they are happy with how it all played out.
"What Kivi did was pretty spectacular," Benn said. "Those are the things you dream about when you're a kid when you're playing in the driveway and whatnot. That just became a reality for him."
And that also helped the Stars make their dream of getting past the second round a reality. They didn't want the memory of a squandered series hanging over their collective head. They didn't want to leave this crazy bubble hockey that requires them to stay isolated in Edmonton.
"It's a lot of excitement for sure right now, and some kind of relief as well," said defenseman John Klingberg.
In a year when so much has been strange, why not this?

Since the team moved to Dallas in 1993, no Stars player had a playoff hat trick. Now, they have three in one season, including two by rookies. They have become an offensive powerhouse, scoring five goals or more in seven playoff games. That's after doing it just five times during the regular season. Defenseman Miro Heiskanen has already set franchise records for most points by a defenseman in a single playoff season (21) and for consecutive game playoff point streak (eight).
In a lot of ways, it doesn't make any sense. In this odd year, it makes perfect sense.
That said, there also is some pretty normal logic out there. Kiviranta said after the game he's hoping his performance will give the opportunity to play more after sitting out for the first six games of the Colorado series.
When told of the comments, Bowness laughed.
"I'm not the smartest guy in the world but there's a pretty good chance he'll be in our lineup in the next game," Bowness said. "I'll talk to him tonight and let him know, `yeah, you're playing next game.'"
The fact that it will be the Stars' first game in the Western Conference finals since 2008 makes it a pretty special privilege.
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.