In Dallas, the Stars clamped down on the Seattle Kraken on Monday night in a 2-1 win in Game 7 of their second round series.
“It was our best team game of the playoffs,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “I knew our group would respond (from the 6-3 loss in Game 6 on Saturday). They have all year individually and collectively as a team, and they didn’t disappoint.”
The win sends Dallas to the Western Conference Final against the Vegas Golden Knights.
“Vegas,” DeBoer said. “There’s a lot to unpack there. I think we’ll just enjoy tonight and talk about that as we go forward.”
Roope Hintz scored in the middle fame after a scor4eless first period.
“I think this was our best game of the series today,” Hintz said. “Everyone was in today. We did work everywhere on the ice. We tried to play simple and then we worked with our feet.”
Jake Oettinger made 22 saves in the Dallas win.
“I don’t think I had my best series of my career, but it shows how good of a team we are,” Oettinger said. “I feel like my best hockey is still ahead of me. Just goes to show how good of a team we have. That’s playoff hockey. It’s ups and downs. You think you might be out of it and next you’re going to the conference final.
“When you asked me if you think you can win (the Stanley Cup), I feel like not every year you can honestly say yes. I think this year I feel like we can win it. We have everything. When we play the way we want to play and we do the little things right, I think we can beat anyone.”
Hintz scored at 15:59 of the second after stealing the puck from the Kraken’s Jamie Oleksiak .
Wyatt Johnston pushed the Dallas advantage to 2-0 at 12:48 of the third after beating the Seattle defense to the puck below the Kraken goal line.
“What a goal,” DeBoer said. “It’s not just a goal, it’s a goal that, it’s hard to explain. I don’t know how many players would think about doing that, never mind pull it off and score like that on that play. It’s an elite, world-class play by one of the youngest players in the League (Johnston turned 20 on Sunday). Just phenomenal.”
Seattle’s lone goal came with 17 seconds left on the clock in the third.
“We pushed as hard as we could push tonight, we just couldn’t find our top gear,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “Give Dallas a lot of credit in that regard. To a certain degree, they answered the game that we played in Game 6. They came home to their home building and put us under pressure. As we got into that second period, that’s where they tilted the game in their direction.”
Oliver Bjorkstrand broke the shut out bid at 19:47
“From Day One, everyone’s kind of written us off,” Kraken forward Jordan Eberle said. “So, we took a big leap this year. I didn’t think anyone expected us to make the playoffs, no one expected us to beat Colorado, and no one expected us to get to seven here. I think we see, as a group, this is the first time we’ve been through this. You’ve got to obviously learn how to lose first then find a way to win.”
Philipp Grubauer made 26 saves in the Kraken loss.
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t make the stop on the second goal, but we battled back, we got a goal there to make it 2-1, and, unfortunately, we ran out of time,” Grubauer said.
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