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Patrick Maroon of the Anaheim Ducks celebrates scoring a goal against the Chicago Blackhawks in the third period of Game Five of the Western Conference Finals.Harry How/Getty Images

The 2010-11 season was supposed to be a pivotal one for Philadelphia Flyers prospect Patrick Maroon. A sixth-round draft pick by the Flyers in 2007, he was expected to make the jump to the National Hockey League.

But two weeks into that breakthrough season, he was out of hockey.

Maroon, now with the Anaheim Ducks, is one win away from the Stanley Cup finals after a 5-4 overtime victory over the Chicago Blackhawks Monday night. Maroon's late goal in Game 5, his sixth of the postseason, looked to be the game-winner until Jonathan Toews tied the score with 38 seconds remaining in regulation, setting the stage for Matt Beleskey's winner 45 seconds into overtime.

Game 6 will be Wednesday night in Chicago, where the Ducks will have a chance to advance to the NHL finals for the first time since they won the franchise's lone championship, in 2007.

Maroon's is a unique hockey journey, which shifted the day the Flyers told him to pack his bags.

"The organization made a decision to send him home," said Greg Gilbert, who delivered that message to Maroon as the coach of Philadelphia's American Hockey League affiliate, the Adirondack Phantoms.

"He wasn't committed to himself," Gilbert said. "In Patrick's case, I don't really think he knew how to train and play at that level."

At the time of his unceremonious exit, Maroon led the Phantoms with five goals in the team's first nine games. He was emboldened the previous summer by his first overseas tournament, a gold medal performance at the 2010 IIHF Inline World Championship.

Playing alongside two of his oldest friends, Maroon scored seven goals and 14 points in six games at the in-line worlds. He even notched a goal and an assist in the gold medal game in Karlstad, Sweden, against the Czechs.

"It was the best time of my life," Maroon said. "You got away from everything. You got away from all the stress and worries about other things. I went there to have fun and just enjoy my time with those guys and meet new people and enjoy Sweden."

Maroon's championship turn offered one last opportunity to play with Kyle Kraemer and Shawn Gawrys, lifelong friends from St. Louis. But Maroon's enthusiasm for his international hockey triumph was not shared by the Flyers.

"You can't stop and start on Rollerblades," Gilbert said. "If you watch the game nowadays, it's starting and stopping and explosiveness. You can glide around all you want, but that's not the way the game is played. It's great that he won the championship in Rollerblading and all that stuff, but he's getting paid to be a pro and play ice hockey."

Maroon would not comment about the specifics of his dismissal, although he lauded the former Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren for drafting him and giving him the opportunity to play professionally. The meeting with Gilbert left Maroon, who was 22 at the time, unemployed and contemplating life without hockey.

He relocated to New Jersey to be near family, his only time on ice spent skating alongside the club team at nearby Montclair State. It was a world away from the N.H.L., and Maroon was officially wading through the hockey wasteland.

"I could have been done playing hockey," he said. " I was on the last year of my contract. There's obviously thoughts that you probably won't get another contract, or get traded. I was sitting on my couch for a month and a half."

Maroon's concerns were heightened by the fact that he had a son, Anthony, who was 3 at the time. With his N.H.L. dreams potentially dashed and a young son to support, Maroon found strength in family.

"That's probably the scariest time of my life," he said. "You don't know if you can provide for your son again. You might have to go into the working world. Anthony is the one who pushed me. He kept me going. My family kept saying good things are going to happen, and I eventually got traded."

The Ducks acquired Maroon a month after his dismissal from the Phantoms. Shortly after the trade, he reported to Anaheim's AHL affiliate in Syracuse, N.Y., and proceeded to resuscitate his career. He scored 11 minutes 10 seconds into his first game with the Crunch, with whom he scored 21 goals and 48 points in 57 games.

After parts of three seasons, Maroon secured an NHL roster spot last season. This season, he earned one of the most coveted jobs in the NHL: left wing on the Ducks' top line beside the star forwards Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. The position had been a revolving door since Anaheim traded Bobby Ryan to the Ottawa Senators in 2013.

It has been quite a journey for Maroon, who acknowledges that he has matured since his fallout with the Flyers.

"Things happen and people move on," he said. "But it's not the way I wanted to move on, by any means. I wish I could go back and sit down and talk to them, have a clean slate."

In another unexpected turn, Maroon became the face of an emerging hockey hotbed in St. Louis. The USA Hockey National Team Development Program's under-18 team features three Missouri natives, including top prospect Matthew Tkachuk, the son of the longtime St. Louis Blues star Keith Tkachuk. Defenseman Jincy Dunne, 18, one of the country's top young women's players, is also from St. Louis.

"Pat never gave up on his dream, and he finally achieved it," said Kraemer, Maroon's longtime friend and former in-line teammate. "That shows a lot to young kids."

Maroon's 9 points in 14 playoff games has recently earned him the adulation of countless fans, including Gilbert, of all people, who was fired one week after his fateful meeting with Maroon and now coaches the Ontario Hockey League's Saginaw Spirit.

"It's awesome," said Gilbert, who won the Stanley Cup three times as a player with the Islanders and the Rangers. "I just wish it would have started five years ago."

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