EDMONTON, Alberta — Joel Kiviranta completed a hat track 7:24 into overtime to give Dallas a 5-4 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Friday in Game 7 of their second-round series, sending the Stars to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2008.

Kiviranta, a rookie, was inserted into the lineup for the first time in the series because Andrew Cogliano was unfit to play, and had scored only once in 11 regular-season games.

“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.”

Kiviranta moved away from the crease just before his quick shot on a pass from defenseman Andrej Sekera from behind the net.

“What Kivi did was pretty spectacular,” captain Jamie 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.”

Stars interim coach Rick Bowness, a former Maine Mariners coach, was also impressed by the primary assist for the seventh Game 7 hat trick in NHL history, and first since Wayne Gretzky for the Los Angeles Kings in the 1993 conference finals.

“To tell you that we practiced Andrej behind their offensive net making those saucer passes, no, that has not been at our practice plan and our playing drills,” Bowness said. “I’m glad he knew he was behind the offensive net and not our net, where he normally is with the puck. That’s overtime hockey. And that’s bubble hockey. You just don’t know what to expect and you kind of roll with it.”

Dallas will open the conference finals Sunday night against Vegas.

The Avalanche were trying to get to their first Western Conference finals since 2002, and forced Game 7 after being down 3-1. Third-string goalie Michael Hutchinson, a 30-year-old journeyman who had never started a playoff game before winning consecutive elimination games, finished with 31 saves.

“The series was back and forth, starting from Game 1 and tonight the game itself was no different. Back and forth,” Avs Coach Jared Bednar said. “Just when you think you had the one that could win the game or win the series, the other team stepped up their game and took it back over.”

Alexander Radulov scored two goals for Dallas, tying it at 3 with 8:32 left with assists from John Klingberg and Jamie Benn. That was only a couple minutes after Radulov came out of the penalty box for an interference penalty.

In a series in which the two teams combined for 57 goals and were tied four times in the finale, they scored 10 seconds apart late in regulation.

Colorado took a 4-3 lead with 3:40 left in regulation when Vladislav Namestnikov scored his second goal of the game. But 10 seconds later, Kiviranta scored his second goal.

Nazeem Kadri had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche, who played without captain Gabriel Landeskog (unfit to play) and didn’t get a point from scoring wizard Nathan MacKinnon for the first time in 15 games this postseason.

The Avs led 3-2 with 14:15 left in the second period after Stars goalie Anton Khudobin couldn’t control get control of a puck, and Kadri scored on a backhander from the left side of the net. That was Kadri’s sixth power-play goal in the playoffs, matching Joe Sakic (1996) for the second-most in an Avalanche postseason behind Michel Goulet’s seven in 1985.

And Kadri twice came oh-so-close to scoring again later in the period. He had one shot ricochet off the post, and Khudobin was falling back when he extended his left arm for a glove save on another Kadri shot that looked like it was head into the net.

Dallas had an extra skater on the ice during a delayed penalty early in the second period when it tied the game at 2-2. Rookie Denis Gurianov took a shot toward traffic, and it went off Kiviranta’s blade and past Hutchinson.

Andre Burakovsky, who won a Stanley Cup title with Washington in 2018 but was traded by the Capitals after last season, converted a turnover by Dallas defender Jamie Olesksiak into an unassisted goal and a 2-1 lead midway lead through the first period. Burakovsky got his fourth goal in six career Game 7s.

The Stars scored only 2 1/2 minutes into the game when Radulov jammed in a loose puck soon after Hutchinson was unable to clear it out of the zone from behind the net. But their lead lasted just 69 seconds, with Colorado getting even on an Ian Cole shot into traffic that went off the stick of teammate Namestnikov for a 1-1 tie.

Khudobin made 40 saves.

GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3, CANUCKS 0: Shea Theodore finally solved Thatcher Demko with 6:08 remaining in the third period and Vegas advanced to the Western Conference semifinals with a Game 7 victory.

Theodore’s goal was the first in 138:40 for the Golden Knights against Demko, a rookie who had brought Vancouver 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.

Alex Tuch and Paul Stastny added empty-net goals.

Vegas outshot the Canucks 36-14 in the game and 127-54 over the final three. It was barely enough.

Robin Lehner recorded his third shutout of the series, and his sensational glove save on Brock Boeser in the second period kept the game scoreless.

 

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