Kiviranta’s 3rd goal does the trick in OT
Joel Kiviranta completed a hat track 7:24 into overtime to give the Stars a 5-4 victory over the Avalanche on Friday in Game 7 in Edmonton, Alberta, sending them to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2008.
Kiviranta moved away from the crease just before his quick shot on a pass from Andrej Sekera from behind the net. Kiviranta was playing only his third postseason game. After the 24-year-old forward scored once in 11 regular-season games, he was on the ice for the series finale because Andrew Cogliano was unfit to play.
“Pretty unreal. This is what you dream about when you’re a young kid,” Kiviranta said. “I played the first Game 7 of my life. I didn’t know what to expect. … Maybe their ‘D’ just lost me a little bit. They didn’t know who was picking me up. I tried to find a soft spot. It was a great pass.”
It was only the seventh Game 7 hat trick in NHL history, and the first since Wayne Gretzky for the Kings in the 1993 conference finals.
Alexander Radulov scored two goals for the Stars, tying it at 3 with 8:32 left. That was only a couple of minutes after Radulov came out of the penalty box for an interference penalty.
Golden Knights win Game 7
Shea Theodore finally solved Thatcher Demko with 6:08 remaining in the third period, and the Golden Knights edged the Canucks 3-0 in Game 7 of their secondround series in Edmonton.
Theodore’s goal was the first in 138:40 for the Golden Knights against Demko, the rookie who had brought the Canucks back from a 3-1 deficit in the series and held off Vegas for most of this game, too. Then Theodore scored a power-play goal on a wrist shot from the blue line that slipped through traffic and past Demko, who had made 98 consecutive saves. The Golden Knights outshot the Canucks 36-14 in the game and 127-54 over the final three.
Alex Tuch and Paul Stastny added empty-net goals.
Robin Lehner had his third shutout of the series, and his sensational glove save on Brock Boeser in the second period kept the game scoreless. ✶