Heika’s Take: Hockey gods turn against Stars in frenetic Game 6 as Avs tie series

The hockey gods giveth and the hockey gods taketh away.

At least that’s how it seems in the best-of-seven First Round playoff series between the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche.

Those who pull the strings in the song of ice and fire that plays out on rinks across this sports landscape handed the Stars a couple of fortunate bounces in Game 5. Dallas rode a couple of fluky goals to a 2-0 lead and an eventual 6-2 win in Dallas, and that gave them the opportunity to close out the Avalanche on Wednesday at Ball Arena in Denver. But just when it seemed the lads in Victory Green might be able to overcome the hockey gods, they were cursed by the most unfortunate bounce of the series.

With the score tied at 4-4 in the third period, Sam Steel tried to clear a puck from in front of the net by shooting it at the side boards. However, the puck hit teammate Colin Blackwell in the shoulder and fluttered over Jake Oettinger’s glove for the game-winner. It was a taunting blow to a team that had spilled its guts on the ice, but the eventual 7-4 loss (Colorado scored two empty-netters) also put this series at 3-3 with Game 7 in Dallas on Saturday.

Bottom line, both of these teams have an equal chance to win now.

“It’s two good teams and personally I’m not surprised it’s going to Game 7,” said Mikko Rantanen, who started the season with the Avalanche and now is playing for the Stars. “It’s two really good teams and it’s good for the hockey world to see this series.”

The drama has been exquisite. Rantanen spent nearly a decade in Colorado and helped the Avalanche win a Stanley Cup. Now, he’s being booed by his old fans. He had a goal and three assists on Wednesday and almost drove Dallas to the win. Colorado has several former Stars players, including Valeri Nichushkin, who had two goals on Wednesday.

“The teams are so evenly matched, if you’re going to go into a game and two goals are going to go in off your own players, it’s going to be tough to win that night,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said.

Colorado scored its first goal on a puck that deflected off of two Dallas defensemen. The Avalanche got its second on a fluky play where Cale Makar partially fanned on a shot, but the puck trickled to Artturi Lehkonen who jammed it home. That 2-0 lead seemed a terrible sign to a Stars team that lost Game 4 in Denver, 4-0. But instead of giving up, Dallas battled back and eventually took a 4-3 lead after two periods.

The all-Finn line of Rantanen, Roope Hintz and Mikael Granlund scored all four goals. Hintz scored on a power play off a nice pass from Rantanen. Then, Granlund scored in transition with Hintz and Rantanen getting the assists.

Martin Necas gave Colorado a 3-2 lead, but then both Hintz and Rantanen scored for a 4-3 cushion. The Hintz goal was a thing of beauty as Rantanen battled his old teammates for puck possession and then fed Hintz, who entered the zone with speed and scored his fourth goal of the playoffs. Rantanen then scored his second playoff goal in a Stars uniform, and that just stirred the crowd.

Rantanen wanted to sign a contract extension in Colorado, but the two sides couldn’t work it out. He was then traded to Carolina in January. Rantanen and the Hurricanes also couldn’t get a new contract done, and he was traded to Dallas in March and signed an eight-year deal that will average $12 million and make him the team’s highest paid player.

So lots of drama there.

On the other side, Colorado has two of the finalists for the Ted Lindsay Award, given to the most valuable player as voted on by the NHL Players’ Association, so they have their own drama. Both Makar and MacKinnon finished with a goal and two assists on Wednesday, so they are living up to their billing as well.

The fact that an “own goal,” then decided Game 6 is just strange.

“You just laugh, you can’t make it up,” Oettinger said. “It was like, ‘Are you serious?’ I’ll just take the good things I did tonight, play my game and play well and Saturday will be a good result.”

Oettinger was fantastic, finishing with 41 saves, but that number told how dominant the Avalanche was at times. Colorado had a 48-26 advantage in shots on goal and an 87-55 edge in shot attempts.

“It was fluky, obviously. A freak goal, but I thought we could have had a lot more than that,” said MacKinnon, who was credited with the score. “So we deserved a bounce. I saw it all. I just got super lucky, and hopefully we get more of those Saturday.”

And that will make Game 7 all the more intriguing. DeBoer is 8-0 in Game 7s, Colorado coach Jared Bednar is 0-3. The team that moves on will be considered a favorite to win the Stanley Cup. The team that loses will be crippled by disappointment. After all, each has designs on winning the Cup, and a First Round loss would be devastating. Either way, DeBoer said he likes what his team has accomplished so far.

“I give our guys credit,” DeBoer said. “Despite the fact we had those bounces against us, we still battled right to the end. I’m proud of the group for that. We’ve got a great opportunity, home for Game 7. No one gave us a chance to win this series and here we are one game at home to advance…So that’s a great situation to be in.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.