On September 14, 2020, the Dallas Stars finished off the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final with a 3-2 overtime win, and Denis Gurianov supplied the finish that sent Dallas to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2000.
It was the last step in a postseason run that had already produced plenty of drama inside the NHL’s Edmonton bubble. Dallas had come into the playoffs as the West’s third seed after a 37-24-8 regular season, then handled the Calgary Flames in the opening round in six games.
The next round was even more chaotic. Against the Colorado Avalanche, the Stars went the distance in a seven-game series that ended with a 5-4 overtime win in Game 7.
That matchup is still remembered for Joel Kiviranta’s stunning Game 7 performance. The fourth-line forward, with modest offensive expectations, scored a natural hat trick, including the overtime winner, to push Dallas into the conference final.
Against Vegas, the Stars kept finding the right moment to strike. They opened the series with a 1-0 win in Game 1 behind a John Klingberg goal and a 25-save shutout from Anton Khudobin. Dallas also grabbed Game 3 in overtime on an Alexander Radulov winner, moving ahead 2-1 and never really giving the Golden Knights a clean path back into the series.
The finale needed extra time as well. Jamie Benn scored in the third period to force overtime, then Gurianov ended it in the extra frame and closed out the series 4-1.
A handful of players drove the run from start to finish. Khudobin took over the net after Ben Bishop dealt with injuries and gave Dallas steady, at times brilliant, goaltending.
Miro Heiskanen, still only in his second NHL season, played with the kind of poise that marked him as a future cornerstone. Benn, Tyler Seguin, Radulov and Corey Perry brought veteran presence and timely offense, while Kiviranta and Gurianov produced two of the most memorable goals of the entire postseason.
Dallas would later meet the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final and lose in six games, but the 2020 playoff run still stands as one of the defining stretches in Stars history.
In Other News...
Stars Just Filled One Of Their Strangest Jobs With A Familiar Connection
The Stars have reportedly settled one of hockeys strangest roster spots by lining up a full-time emergency backup goaltender for the 2026-27 season, a job that usually lives somewhere between necessity and hockey trivia. The player in line for the role spent four seasons at Notre Dame and came up through the USHL before college, where he worked mostly as a backup but kept developing enough to stay on the radar.
What makes this arrangement a little more interesting for Dallas is the family tie attached to it, since the EBUG candidate has a direct connection to a former Stars goalie who knows the organization well. It is the sort of move that almost certainly wont affect a game unless disaster strikes in net, but it does give the Stars a familiar face on hand for a position that is normally invisible until the moment it is needed most. [Read more 🡒]