A series that was even only in wins was finally even on the ice in Game 7 until Roope Hintz and Wyatt Johnston conjured moments of brilliance for the Dallas Stars, who beat the surprising Seattle Kraken 2-1 Monday to advance to the National Hockey League’s Final Four.
In the previous five games, the average winning margin between the Stars and Kraken was 3.2 goals, and no team won any of the series’ first six games by scoring fewer than four.
But the tension and intensity of the circumstances was evident in Game 7, which is partly what makes the Stanley Cup Playoffs unlike anything else in sports. The Stars and Kraken competed for every puck, every square foot of ice, and were locked in an edgy, scoreless tie until Hintz scored on a sudden breakaway at 15:59 of the second period and rookie Johnston made something from nothing to double Dallas’ lead at 12:48 of the third.
Oliver Bjorkstrand snatched a goal back for Seattle with 18.2 seconds remaining, but Dallas survived a late defensive-zone faceoff and a shot at the buzzer to advance to the franchise’s second Western Conference Final in four seasons.
They play the Vegas Golden Knights, starting Friday in Nevada.
The Stars retooled after missing the playoffs entirely in 2021 and look like a better team, deeper offensively, than the one that lost the 2020 Stanley Cup Final to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the fan-less Edmonton bubble.
They were heavily-favoured to beat Seattle. But after an erratic series in which the fledgling Kraken fully earned their opportunity to advance, the Stars played at a higher level in Game 7 and got a clutch 22-save performance from goalie Jake Oettinger, who had been pulled twice in the series but is now 14-0 this season in games following a regulation loss.
HINTZ’S BIGGEST GOAL YET
Playing in Dallas and without the gaudy offensive numbers in the regular season of the NHL’s best players, Hintz is an underrated star.
He is one of those players capable at any time of making a play that can win a game. And he did that in Game 7 when he forced a turnover by Kraken defenceman Jamie Oleksiak, swooped in on a breakaway and buried a rocket under the bar to break the scoreless tie late in the second period.
In NHL history, teams that score first in Game 7 are 147-47. There is never an inopportune time to make it 1-0. But still, the timing of Hintz’s goal felt pivotal.
Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer, who made 33 saves in Seattle’s 2-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche in Game 7 of Round 1, was in his best form of the series. In the four minutes that preceded Monday’s opening goal, Grubauer made huge saves on Hintz and Tyler Seguin, and Seguin, Jamie Benn and Joe Pavelski also missed the Seattle net on five-star scoring chances.
It felt like if Grubauer and the Kraken survived this stretch while getting badly outplayed, they might just steal the game. And then Hintz scored. Great players make great plays.
CUT SLACK TO OLEKSIAK
It’s easy to jump on Oleksiak for misplaying the high dump out by Dallas defenceman Esa Lindell that landed between Oleksiak and Hintz in the neutral zone. But the puck landed with as much backspin as a Rory McIlroy lob wedge, surprising Oleksiak and putting him in a difficult spot. Expecting the puck to skip forward, Oleksiak was moving away from the puck while Hintz was accelerating towards it. Could Oleksiak have made a safer play on the puck? Probably. But it’s the NHL. It’s sports. Decisions are made in split-seconds, and it’s hard to anticipate luck.
DALLAS WILL BE EVEN BETTER
The Golden Knights just handled Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers in six games, and should be the favourite against Dallas in the conference final — incredibly, the Knights’ fourth Stanley Cup semifinal in their six-year existence.
But can the Stars find another gear after getting pushed to seven games by the Kraken?
Absolutely. Their best scorer, Jason Robertson, went without a goal versus Seattle, and Oettinger finished the series with an .877 save percentage. Get those two players going and the Stars will be even tougher for Vegas than they were against Seattle. But then, they’ll have to be.
CALDER RECOUNT?
Head coaches always have their players’ backs, but Dallas coach Pete DeBoer (7-0 in Game 7s as an NHL head coach) was especially outspoken in support of Wyatt Johnston when the NHL announced its Calder Trophy candidates on May 4, prior to Game 2 of the series.
DeBoer said Johnston, whose 20th birthday on Sunday meant he played the entire regular season as a teenager, had been an impactful player for Dallas all season and the coach couldn’t understand how he was not a finalist. Of course, as is the case in these situations, DeBoer didn’t say which of the three actual finalists should have been omitted: Seattle’s Matty Beniers, Buffalo defenceman Owen Power or Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner. Certainly, Johnston had an excellent rookie season, finishing with 24 goals and 41 points while averaging 15:29 of ice time and playing in all situations as a 19-year-old centre in the NHL.
Johnston’s average playoff TOI through 13 games is 17:14, about a minute behind Hintz (18:26) and well ahead of third-line Dallas centre Max Domi (15:00). And what proved to be Johnston’s series-winning goal on Monday — a deft backhand tucked over Grubauer’s shoulder from an end-boards play — was Johnston’s fourth goal of his first post-season.
It was his team-leading fifth shot of the game — five more than Beniers managed in the deciding game. In the series, Johnston had three goals and an assist, Beniers two goals and four assists. Unlike DeBoer, I have no issue with the Calder finalists. The top three names on my ballot were (in alphabetical order) Beniers, Power and Ottawa defenceman Jake Sanderson.
But with the NHL Awards ballot deadline before the playoffs begin, I’ve always wondered as a voter whether the Stanley Cup tournament should be included in the assessment. This would create an uneven playing field since fully half the teams don’t make the playoffs. But it has always seemed a little strange not to consider the hockey everyone regards as the hardest, most difficult and important of the season. And it’s still Johnston’s rookie season.
THERE WAS A CHANCE
Down a goal with an offensive-zone faceoff and 9.2 seconds remaining is always going to be the hockey equivalent of a Hail Mary pass. But it looked like the Kraken had a play on that chance to tie the game after Oettinger chose to hold the puck for the final faceoff rather than sweep it into the corner and let the Stars kill the clock.
Despite getting out-drawn the whole series — and most of the season — Seattle won control of the faceoff between Jaden Schwartz and Dallas’ Luke Glendening. The puck was played to the point to Kraken defenceman Vince Dunn, who fired an inert 60-footer that Oettinger easily directed away with about three seconds remaining.
Standing just to the side of the net was Seattle’s Jordan Eberle, who had drifted wide of Oettinger rather than screen the goalie. The Kraken winger reacted to the shot and save by slamming his stick on the ice, which is very un-Eberle. Maybe he was just upset at the season-ending loss or that the rebound didn’t come to him. Or maybe he was open on a play drawn up when Dallas coach Peter DeBoer called a timeout before the final faceoff, and the puck didn’t go where it was supposed to from the point. We may never know because NHL players, who all make mistakes, don’t rat out teammates.
Like we said, a tying goal in that situation is a 100-to-one longshot, minimum, no matter what. But it was a surprisingly interesting ending consider Seattle trailed 2-0 until Bjorkstrand scored with 18.2 seconds to go.
QUOTEBOOK
Eberle: “From Day 1, everyone has kind of written us off. We took a big, big leap this year. They don’t expect us to make the playoffs, don’t expect us to beat Colorado, and I’m sure no one had us to seven (games) here. I think Seattle is going to be a hot spot. Players are going to want to play there. It’s a great city, great facilities, great management, great organization. And obviously, we’ve got a great team.”
