DALLAS (AP) — Pete DeBoer has never lost a Game 7 as an NHL coach. Jared Bednar has never won one.
They will be on opposite benches when the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche play what seems like the only fitting end for their first-round series in this year's NHL playoffs — a Game 7 on Saturday night.
“Honestly, Jared Bednar and I are not going to have a big impact on this game,” DeBoer said. “The players are going to decide that. Both teams know each other. It’s who goes out and executes and gets big games from the right guys.”
Still, there are a lot of different records that align heavily toward the Stars, who will be at home for a Game 7 for the third season in a row.
— DeBoer is 8-0 in Game 7s with four different teams, including each of the past two postseasons since getting to Dallas and reaching the Western Conference Final both times. No other coach has won more Game 7s, with Darryl Sutter 8-3 in them.
— Bednar is 0-3 in Game 7s, all with the Avalanche, who have lost six in a row since 2002. He is also 0-3 overall in playoff series against DeBoer, including a seven-game loss in the second round to San Jose in 2019.
— The Stars are 3-0 against Colorado in Game 7s, and reached the Stanley Cup Finals after each of those. The two teams went seven games in the Western Conference Final in both 1999 and 2000. Then in the second round of the pandemic-impacted 2020 playoffs inside the Canadian bubble, the deciding game was tied four times before then-Stars rookie and current Avalanche forward Joel Kiviranta completed a hat trick with an overtime goal that gave Dallas a 5-4 win.
This will be the 199th time a Game 7 has happened in the NHL playoffs, and the first this season.
“Personally not surprised it’s going to Game 7,” said Dallas forward Mikko Rantanen, who has been traded twice since being with the Avs in the playoffs the past seven seasons, including their 2022 Stanley Cup title. “It's two really good teams, and it's good for the hockey world to see this series.”
Colorado avoided elimination with a 7-4 win in Game 6, getting some fortunate and fluky bounces at home Thursday night.
This is the fourth year in a row for Dallas to be in a Game 7, with Jake Oettinger in net for all of them. The 26-year-old goalie has a .956 save percentage (108 of 113) and 1.54 goals against average the previous three, with the only loss coming in a first-round series at top-seeded Calgary in 2022 when he had 64 saves before an overtime goal by the late Johnny Gaudreau.
“We’ve all been there before,” Oettinger said. “We’ve won our last two Game 7s, we all know what we need to do to beat these guys.”
Colorado goalie Mackenzie Blackwood is in his first playoff series, and has a .899 save percentage while allowing 16 goals, two fewer than Oettinger.
DeBoer was still playing the underdog card soon after Game 6.
"No one gives us a chance to win this series and here we are, with one game at home to to advance,” DeBoer said.
Bednar wasn’t exactly buying it from a team that finished ahead of them in the Central Division and has home-ice advantage. The Stars are missing two key players in defenseman Miro Heiskanen and forward Jason Robertson, both sidelined with lower-body injuries.
“Hey, you build a narrative for your team to grab onto,” Bednar said. “This is a deep team. But we have our own narrative, too. We feel like we’re a team that can win, but you’ve got to go prove it.”
Colorado Avalanche at Dallas Stars
When/Where to Watch: Game 7, Saturday, 8 p.m. EDT (ABC)
Series: Tied 3-3.
Valeri Nichushkin was slamming his stick in frustration at practice before Game 6.
His sticks received the message as the Russian forward scored two goals, and he wasn't the only player to break out of a scoring funk in that elimination game for the Avalanche. Defenseman Cale Makar had a goal and two assists, while Martin Necas added his first goal of the series. Brock Nelson had two assists.
“That’s the theme of our team. You can’t just … you can’t go away,” Bednar said. “You just have to keep chipping away and battling to get better. Keep grinding and finding ways to get those looks that you need.”
Makar seems to raise his game when the stakes are high. He’s got four goals and eight assists over 11 games when the Avalanche are facing elimination.
“He’s going to get real hot here,” Bednar said.
Rantanen and Roope Hintz led a four-goal burst by Dallas in the second period of Game 6. Rantanen (one goal, three assists) and Hintz (two goals, two assists) became the first set of teammates in league history to each notch four points in a playoff period.
“Those periods obviously happen pretty rarely, but (we) try to do it as often as we can,” Rantanen said. "I think it was execution, and everybody wanted the puck, and we were just passing it around pretty well.”
___
AP Sports Writer Pat Graham in Denver contributed to this report.
___
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/NHL
Stephen Hawkins, The Associated Press
