Joe Pavelski located the loose puck during a net-front scrum and sent a backhand pass to Duchene, who shot over a sprawling Alexandar Georgiev from just below the right face-off circle.
“From what I remember, it was a little give-and-go. 'Dutchy' made a nice play to me. I got a stick on it,” Pavelski said. “It's just a battle. Caught ‘Dutch’ kind of out of the corner of my eye on the side and just tried to get it out there. For me, you're battling and you know it gets out to him, and I just got an eye on the net. It was nice to see it go in.”
DAL@COL R2, Gm6: Duchene roofs rebound in 2OT, wins series for Stars
The Stars will face either the Vancouver Canucks or Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Final. Vancouver leads that series 3-2 entering Game 6 on Saturday.
It will be Dallas’ second consecutive trip to the conference final. The Stars lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights in six games in 2023.
Mason Marchment nearly won it for Dallas with an apparent goal at 12:31 of the first overtime on a wrist shot from the slot, but it was immediately waved off because of goaltender interference against Duchene. The call was upheld following video review.
“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,” 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.”
Jamie Benn scored the tying goal early in the third period, and Jake Oettinger made 29 saves for the Stars, who are the No. 1 seed from the Central Division.
“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.”
DAL@COL R2, Gm6: Benn buries Dadonov's pretty dish to tie it in 3rd
Mikko Rantanen scored, and Georgiev made 36 saves for the Avalanche, who were the No. 3 seed from the Central.
“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.”
Rantanen gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 5:48 of the second period on the power play, roofing a wrist shot short side over the shoulder of Oettinger from below the right circle.
“It’s one of those you feel you played well enough to win the game and force a Game 7, just didn’t happen,” 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.”
???? Florida Panthers vs. Boston Bruins ???? New York Rangers vs. Carolina Hurricanes ???? Dallas Stars vs. Colorado Avalanche ???? Vancouver Canucks vs. Edmonton Oilers
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