In Dallas, Seattle’s Yanni Gourde whipped a shot past a crowd of Stars defenders at 12:17 of extra time on Tuesday night to stun Dallas with a 5-4 win for the Kraken in Game 1.
Joe Pavelski scored his second double in the third period to rally the Stars back from a 4-0 deficit, he four goals in the game.
“We’re a pretty mature group in there and we trusted that the process was going to get it done,” Gourde said. “Keep working and keep at it and eventually we were going to get our break, and we got it there.”
Pavelski opened the scoring in the game with a goal.
It was Pavelski’s first game back since a concussion on 17 April.
“Excited to be back, that’s for sure,” Pavelski said. “First lap of warmups, felt a shot of adrenaline right there, was excited. Starting the game was just as much fun. We battled all night. It was a good game. We were right there. Obviously tough loss, we want to get those.”
Game 2 is set for Thursday in Dallas.
“I thought we did a good job of crawling back in that game,” Dallas’ Max Domi (three assists) said. “Joe dragged everyone into the fight with him, so a lot of good to build on from that, but it would’ve been nice to get the [win]. But that’s why it’s a seven-game series, right? So we’ll clean up some things and be ready to go for Game 2.”
Philipp Grubauer made 31 saves in the Seattle win.
“Epic, epic [return],” Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. “Shame we wasted it and didn’t win. That’s on our group because he more than did his part. He tried to drag us to a win here tonight. Just some uncharacteristic mistakes, two face-off goals, essentially, off missed assignments. Just didn’t play hard enough for long enough with enough detail in our game. I think that’s what you get this time of year. It reminds me a little bit of Game 1 against Minnesota. We turn it on late, had some chances in overtime, but just need a little bit more for a little bit longer.”
After Pavelski scored in the first for the 1-0 lead, Jaden Schwartz tied it for Seattle, 1-1, at 11:25.
Pavelski’s first period double came 53 seconds later to give the Stars a 2-1 advantage.
From the, the first period was all Seattle.
Justin Schultz tied the game 2:10 later at 2-2.
Following the face off at center ice after that goal, Oliver Bjorkstrand scored 11 seconds later for a 3-2 lead to the Kraken.
“That’s not a typical first period in playoff hockey, but sometimes you get those,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “There’s a lot going on there. Obviously, on the defensive side, play without the puck, we’ve got to clean some things up there. What I did like is we go down and [were] able to push back right away and just do it in a way where we’ve generated offense that way all year. We were able to get inside a little bit, which you have to do on Oettinger. That was a big part of some of the offense we were able to 
create.”
Jordan Eberle scored at 15:20 for the 4-2 advantage to Seattle.
The game stayed that way until Pavelski hit for the two in the third period to force extra time.
Jake Oettinger made 39 saves in the loss.
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