Colorado’s injuries, special teams to blame for Game 7 loss
In a coronavirus-free world, Game 7 of the Avalanche-Dallas Stars Western Conference semifinal series would have been played in late May in front of 18,000some fans at the Pepsi Center.
Instead, it was played in September before empty seats in Edmonton.
Home-ice advantage would have been important in May, but it wasn’t Friday afternoon at Rogers Place. The Avs blew a late lead in regulation and lost 5-4 in overtime to extend their Game 7 losing streak to five.
Colorado star center Nathan MacKinnon is now 0-3 in Game 7s, with his first coming at Pepsi Center to end his rookie season in 2014. Similar to Friday’s result against the Stars, the Minnesota Wild forced overtime with a game-tying goal from Jared Spurgeon with 2:33 remaining in regulation and then won 5-4 on Nino Niederreiter’s goal 5:02 into OT.
On Friday, Dallas rookie Joel Kiviranta
tied it 4-4 with 3:30 left in regulation and then won it 5-4 just 7:24 into OT.
Would home-ice at Pepsi Center have helped the Avs win Friday? Undoubtedly. But the same result could have unfolded.
MacKinnon and the Avs also lost Game 7 of their conference semifinal series last season, falling 3-2 against the Sharks in San Jose.
“Two straight years, Game 7 losses, one-goal games,” MacKinnon said on his final Zoom call from Edmonton on Friday. “It’s tough. We’ve got to find a way to breakthrough. There’s no moral victories here. We came here to win and we didn’t get the job done.”
Stars align for rookie Finn.
Headline from the Dallas Morning News’ Game 7 game story: “Finnished them off: Stars forward Joel Kiviranta started Game 7 as an injury replacement, but ended a playoff legend.”
Kiviranta, the 24-year-old Finn, made his series debut in Game 7.
He was a healthy scratch in the first six games but came in for injured forward Andrew Cogliano — the former NHL ironman leader who played in 830 consecutive games in his first 12 years in the league before he was suspended in 2018.
Kiviranta, who played just 11 regular-season games with the Stars, scored Dallas’ second goal and became the first rookie to record a Game 7 hat trick in NHL history.
“If I were a smart coach, I would have had him in a lot earlier, clearly,” Dallas interim coach Rick Bowness said of the young Finn.
Moving on. The Avalanche begins what will probably be a relatively quiet offseason, with all of its best players either under contract for next season or protected as restricted free agents.
The unrestricted free agents are forwards Vladislav Namestnikov and Matt Nieto, defensemen Mark Barberio and Kevin Connauton, and goalie Michael Hutchinson. None of those players are expected to be re-signed because of the handful of young prospects with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles or those on the cusp of beginning their professional careers. “It looks good for us,” Avs winger Mikko Rantanen said of the club’s immediate future. “We have lots of younger players coming up.”
Young Eagles regulars Logan O’Connor, Martin Kaut and Shane Bowers, all forwards, might become full-time Avs next season, along with defenseman Conor Timmins.
The Hockey News wrote that the Avalanche has the NHL’s No. 1 prospect pool on the strength of its top two picks from the 2019 draft, where defenseman Bo Byram was selected No. 4 and forward Alex Newhook No. 16.
Byram, THN’s top overall prospect, has signed his NHL entrylevel contract but is eligible to return to his junior team in Vancouver. Newhook, the NCAA rookie of the year, has said he intends to return to Boston College for his sophomore year.