Game 7: Stars Finally Finnish Beating That Avs

I have to give Joe Sakic credit here. He hasn’t beaten us in a Game 7 yet, but he keeps getting closer and closer each time. Back in 1999, we beat the Avs asses 4-1 in the deciding game. The next year in 2000, Ray Bourque came this close to pushing us to overtime…

Now as the Avs GM, Sakic actually did extend us all the way to OT in Game 7, and he very nearly beat us. Unfortunately for him, we had a Finnish secret weapon who scored a game winning hat trick in his second ever playoff game.

The Finnish goal call of Joel Kiviranta's hat trick goal is incredible pic.twitter.com/BfEjIZnmtC
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) September 4, 2020

“WE’RE NOT GOING HOME!” pic.twitter.com/EH7Y8hTGSG
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) September 5, 2020

Holy. Fucking. Shit. Thank god Jere Lehtinen tipped us off about this kid. Thank god Cogliano, who two years ago had the NHL iron man record, wasn’t healthy enough to play Friday.

Cogliano did serve us well before leaving, as he took out Avs defenseman Conor Timins with this hit in Game 6. It was the final bit of injury depletion that we desperately needed every single bit of.

Conor Timmins has gone to the locker room after this hit from behind by Cogliano. Timmins missed 2018/19 season with concussion symptoms. pic.twitter.com/bpJe4q93Le
— NHL Safety Watch (@NHLSafetyWatch) September 3, 2020

But in Game 7, we needed the Finnish scorer more and boy did he deliver. Thank the fucking lord.

This was an emotional game for me to say the least. I started watching on my phone at a funeral and eventually found myself chain-smoking outside an OKC Hooter’s during the OT intermission.

I realized that the last time I watched an important Dallas game at Hooter’s, it was the Game 6 loss of the Mavs/Warriors we believe series. I was about to really hate the establishment of Hooter’s and I was also about to fall into a deep abyss of depression.

Thank god things turned. Who knows if I would be here writing this today otherwise. Here’s how crunch time went down…