In Denver, Matt Duchene corralled an errant puck at the edge of the right circle and roofed it at 111L42 of double overtime on Saturday morning to give the Dallas Stars a 2-1 win over the Avalanche, and a 4-2 win win in their second round Stanley Cup Playoffs second round series. 
“I don’t even know what [I did],” Duchene said of his reaction. “I know I ended up on my knees like last time I got one in overtime, but I have no idea, to be honest with you. It’s just elation, right?”
Joe Pavelski was credited with the assist on the game winning goal.
“Our team comes in here and wins three road games against the best home team in the NHL,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “Just fantastic character to be able to do that against that team in this building. What a gauntlet. Colorado was a more rested team after their first round. I just couldn’t be prouder of our group. I thought everybody dug deep, and our depth did carry us through.
“That gave us the spark because we’ve got a mix of older and younger guys, but they were just fantastic. Just hard to believe with a gauntlet like that that you’re only halfway there. But we’re going to enjoy and need the time off here, and get ready for the next round.”
The Stars now await the winner of the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers series for the Western Conference Final tilt.
“It’s indescribable. You’re so happy and see all the boys hopping over the bench and then I look over and he’s kind of waving it off,” Dallas’ Mason Marchment said. “The explanation that I got was ‘Dutchy’s’ [back side] was over the line. His feet were outside, but his [back side] was over the line. That’s the explanation I got.
“That’s hard. That’s a momentum swing. Sometimes it can be a huge break for them. I think they maybe did push a little bit after that. We got a good break at the end there, squeaks out to ‘Dutch’ and he scores.”
Mikko Rantanen was the lone striker for the Avalanche.
After a scoreless opening stanza, he scored at 5:48 of the middle frame to stake the Avs to a 1-0 lead, scoring off a power play on a shot from near the goal line on the right side.
“It’s one of those you feel you played well enough to win the game and force a Game 7, just didn’t happen,” the Avs’ Zach Parise said. “Just a little bit of shock when it ends suddenly like that. it takes some time to process everything, but just tough way to end.”
Jamie Benn made the extra sessions necessary when he tied the game, 1-1, at 1:56 of the third period.
Evgenii Dadonov set Benn up with a nifty behind the back pass for a backhand shot and the tie.
“We’ve played with the lead a lot this series, and then we got tested here a little bit being down,” Pavelski said. “I think the second period, we weren’t great and we were kind of stubborn as far as putting pucks in and how we needed to kind of create. I think in the third and the overtimes, we were committed to doing it the right way. And we tied this game up by our forecheck, by creating some O-zone time.
“Just a great play by [Tyler Seguin] and [Dadonov] and [Benn] to get us that one. It was a simple chip, driving the middle. [Dadonov] makes a great play over and [Benn] finishes it. That was kind of a huge turning point for us. You could feel the legs coming for everybody.”
Use CodePHN15 Matt Duchene earns the #PHNChairoftheNight for his double OT game winner
Alexandar Georgiev made 36 saves in the loss.
“It was tiring, there’s no question,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “You can see our energy level drop as the periods went on, but our guys played hard. They played hard every shift and defended hard.
“They’re a really good team. They’re disciplined. They’re deep. They got great goaltending, [are] well coached. They got everything that you can ask for in a team. They’re a contender in my book. It [stinks]. You put so much into a season as a group and you come up short. It’s never a good feeling.”
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