ANAHEIM, Calif. — The 2010-11 season was supposed to be a pivotal one for the 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 on 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 played Wednesday night in Chicago, where the Ducks will have a chance to advance to the N.H.L. finals for the first time since they won the franchise’s lone championship, in 2007.

Maroon’s is a unique hockey journey that 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.