He scored one goal all season, but erupted for a hat trick to lead the Stars in Game 7
The only reason Joel Kiviranta played Game 7 was because of an injury to a teammate. And that switch would wind up saving the entire season for the Dallas Stars.
Stars forward Joel Kiviranta played all of 11 games during the regular season, and scored only one goal.
He was put into the lineup for Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Colorado Avalanche on Friday afternoon in Edmonton because teammate Andrew Cogliano could not go.
Friday was only Kiviranta’s third career playoff appearance.
By the end of the game, Kiviranta scored a hat trick and the Dallas Stars advanced to the Western Conference finals to avoid a historic gag.
Kiviranta scored the game-tying goal late in the third period, and then the winner in overtime for a 5-4 victory. The Stars will be making their first trip to the conference finals since 2008.
“Unreal feeling,” Stars defenseman John Klingberg said in a Zoom call with the media after the game. “It’s a lot of excitement, some of relief as well.”
Maybe more relief. The Stars led this series, 3-1.
Kiviranta’s winner was a clean shot from the slot on a pass from Anrej Sekera at the 7:24 mark of overtime.
It is only the second time in the history of the Stars’ franchise they scored a game-winning goal in overtime. Their previous Game 7 OT winner came in 1984, when the team called Minnesota home.
Last season, the Stars lost in overtime of Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals to eventual champion St. Louis.
The Stars will open the conference finals against the Vegas Knights on Sunday at 7 p.m. Vegas defeated the Vancouver Canucks, 3-0, in Game 7 of their series, Friday night.
But getting back to the Stars’ historic Game 7, see if you can follow this timeline:
The Stars took a 1-0 lead on a power play goal by Alexander Radulov with less than three minutes into the game.
Colorado then scored consecutive goals to take a 2-1 lead into the second period.
Kiviranta scored his first career playoff goal, three minutes into the second period. Colorado took a 3-2 less than three minutes later.
Radulov tied it with less than 10 minutes remaining in the game.
“I’ll take it, but it doesn’t matter,” Radulov.
Less than 90 seconds later, the Avs took a 4-3 lead.
Ten seconds later, the Stars tied it on Kiviranta’s second goal of the game.
The Stars nearly won it in the final seconds when forward Joe Pavelski was alone in the slot and his shot was narrowly stopped by Avs goalie Michael Hutchinson.
Not included in this summary are the posts hit on shots by both the Stars and Avs. Also not included, an assortment of other crazy plays, blocked shots and near misses.
It was only fitting that a memorable series ended in seven, in overtime, on consecutive goals by a guy who had never scored any in the playoffs before.
This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 6:42 PM.
