DENVER — The Dallas Stars are off to the Western Conference final for the second year in a row, and it’s hard to imagine their journey not reaching the Stanley Cup Final with the kind of hockey they continue to play.
Matt Duchene, the former Avalanche first-round pick who requested a trade out of Colorado, scored in double overtime after a net-front scramble to eliminate the Avalanche with a 2-1 victory in Game 6 on Friday.
“Just elation, right?” Duchene said. “Hard-fought series. They’re a hell of team, obviously. They were really good the last two games and they pushed us hard. … We were just able to kind of outlast them.”
One period earlier, Duchene was at the center of controversy.
There was high drama in the first overtime period, when Dallas’ Mason Marchment had a goal waved off when on-ice officials ruled that Duchene had made contact with Avalanche goalie Alexandar Georgiev. Colorado’s Cale Makar made contact with Duchene before the goalie contact, but the Toronto review process upheld the on-ice call.
“It’s indescribable,” Marchment said of seeing the goal disallowed. “You’re so happy and see all the boys hopping over the bench and then I look over and (the ref is) kind of waving it off. …
“The explanation that I got was (Duchene’s butt) was over the line. His feet were outside but his (butt) was over the line. That’s the explanation I got. Then he got pushed in. I think, honestly, they didn’t want to make it a deciding goal, right? I get it, but I think there’s got to be some sort of standard, because you can’t push a guy into your own goalie and not it be goaltender interference. There’s just got to be some sort of standard, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. We got the job done. It’s awesome.”
The officials’ call on the ice was very impactful, no question, in the final decision to leave it as a no-goal. The situation room in Toronto would not have seen 100 percent evidence to overturn the call on the ice. But I’m confident that had the call on the ice been a good goal, Toronto would not have overturned it, either. They saw it as a close call, either way.
Me? I saw it as a good goal. Duchene got pushed in by Makar. I would have called that a goal.
Hank says the no-goal call on the Stars was correct. Biz and Ace disagree 😅 pic.twitter.com/W6dHR0FXDb
— NHLonTNT (@NHL_On_TNT) May 18, 2024
In the end, though, the Stars disposed of the 2022 Stanley Cup champion Avalanche after…
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