2014 Stanley Cup Championship

Lore & Background

The Dallas Stars ended the league's third longest active playoff appearance drought, qualifying for the postseason for the first time in six years. The Anaheim Ducks rallied from a 4–2 deficit to defeat the Dallas Stars in game six of their first-round series on April 27, 2014.

In Their Own Story

The American Airlines Center hummed at 7:42 p.m. on a June night in 2014. The ice was a pale, almost white glow under the arena lights, and the smell of cold rubber and pine tar hung in the air like a prayer. Antti Niemi bent low in his crease, stick flat on the ice, breathing in short bursts. The Rangers' forward skated in from the blue line, the puck a dark disc against the white, and the crowd noise swelled into a single, sustained roar that vibrated in the sternum. Niemi tracked the blade. The shot came low, hard, a wrist shot that tried to thread the five-hole. His pad met it with a dull, satisfying thud. He looked up. The scoreboard read 0-0. The series stood 3-1 in Dallas' favor. He tapped his stick once on the ice, a small, private signal to the bench, and the wave of sound from the home side crashed over the glass like a tide. Somewhere in the stands, a man in a faded Stars jersey from the Minnesota days—bought in 1981, never washed, the letters cracked and peeling—pressed his palms flat against his knees and whispered, 'Thank you.' The puck was dropped. The game continued. But something had already been settled, something that no statistician could chart: the Stars had stopped being a team that almost made it. They were, at last, the team that did.

Reader's Guide

The Dallas Stars qualified for the playoffs as the second wild card in the Western Conference with 91 points. They were eliminated in the first round by the Anaheim Ducks in six games.

Did You Know?

• The Dallas Stars ended the league's third longest active playoff appearance drought, qualifying for the postseason for the first time in six years.
• The Anaheim Ducks rallied from a 4–2 deficit to defeat the Dallas Stars in game six of their first-round series on April 27, 2014.