'Quest For The Stanley Cup' continues with field being cut to four teams

The Colorado Avalanche are going to be playing for a trip to the Stanley Cup Final, and the joy is palpable when captain Gabriel Landeskog hands the game puck to the unlikely hero of the night, forward Darren Helm.

Because it was Helm's goal with 5.6 seconds remaining that helped the Avalanche win Game 6 of the best-of-7 Western Conference Second Round, sending them to the Western Conference Final.
It's a moment, detailed in the second episode of the seventh season of "Quest For The Stanley Cup" that demonstrates just how narrow the margin sometimes can be.
The episode, which is available on ESPN+ in the United States and
YouTube/NHL
in Canada, shows the eight teams remaining in the Stanley Cup Playoffs being narrowed to four.

The episode continues with Blake Coleman, a player on a personal quest for a three-peat with the Stanley Cup. Coleman, who joined the Calgary Flames as an unrestricted free agent last summer won the Cup the past two seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
He moved to Calgary for two reasons, for the Flames and for his family, his wife, Jordan, and his daughters, Charlie and Carson.
"We're so happy here," Jordan Coleman said. "It's been the perfect fit. I even find myself starting to say some things in a Canadian accent."
But standing in Coleman's way is a big presence: Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.
The action is fast and furious in Game 5, as it has been for much of the Battle of Alberta, a wild second-round series that has not lacked for offense. And it soars even faster and more furiously in a 71-second span that makes the history books, with four goals scored in head-spinning fashion.
"The good news is this: We haven't even got to our game yet," Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft tells his team in the second intermission. "We are going to take this game over by doing what we do."
McDavid ends up doing exactly what he does, scoring in overtime to send the Oilers to the Western Conference Final.
"There's more to be had for us," forward Leon Draisaitl said.

It's the same feeling had by the other teams remaining in the playoffs, including the Carolina Hurricanes, who have found themselves with what forward Vincent Trocheck calls a "mental hump to get over" on the road, where they have yet to win a single game in the playoffs.
Trocheck, who spent the first seven seasons of his career with the Florida Panthers, has found a welcoming and rabid fan base in Carolina, where he was traded on Feb. 24, 2020, and where he and wife, Hillary, have settled with their two children.
We get a glimpse of a child - or adult's! - wonderland in the backyard, complete with putting green. But while they manage golf and hockey with Leo and Lennon, the setup and batteries in a football passing game bedevil the couple, a scene that should ring true to any parent, whether they're playing for a chance to win the Stanley Cup or not.
"Hearing my son say how bad he wants to win the Stanley Cup and you need to win all the games to win the Stanley Cup, it puts things in perspective," Trocheck said. "It's pretty cool to have them push me a little bit more."
But first they have to close out the New York Rangers.
And though it's worth seeing how a very animated Jordan Martinook gets the Hurricanes ready for Game 6 at Madison Square Garden, it doesn't work quite well enough, however, as the Rangers win, 5-2. The two teams head back to Raleigh to try to earn the final ticket into the conference final, to join the Avalanche, Oilers and Lightning, as the Hurricanes attempt to remain perfect in all eight home games in the playoffs and the Rangers try to get their first game of the series on the road.
"We don't change our game one bit," Rangers coach Gerard Gallant tells his team before the game.
They don't, prevailing in Game 7, 6-2, to earn a trip to the Eastern Conference Final and a date with the two-time champions.
"We're just getting started," forward Chris Kreider said. "We're halfway home."