*Photo from the San Diego Union Tribune*
Dallas wins series 4-3
Another round of playoff hockey has reached its end. Roope Hintz scored, Wyatt Johnston had the winning goal, and the Dallas Stars defeated the Seattle Kraken with a 2-1 victory on Monday night in Dallas.
With the win, the Stars have knocked out the Kraken and advanced to the western conference finals. 4 different skaters recorded a point for the Stars in the win, which was a goaltenders duel throughout. Johnston, at age 20, also became the youngest player in league history to score a series clinching goal in a game 7.
Stars goalie Jake Oettinger said that "When you asked me if you think you can win, 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."
After a scoreless first period, it was the Stars who struck first in the second period. At the 15:59 mark of the second, it was Hintz who got it started. He scored his 9th goal of the playoffs to give the Stars a 1-0 lead with an unasissted goal.
Later in the 3rd period, the Stars got on the board again with the eventual game winner. It was Johnston who did the honors, scoring 12:48 into the period to make it 2-0 Stars with assists going to Evgenii Dadonov and Thomas Harley. With 19 seconds left, Oliver Bjorkstrand scored for the Kraken to make it 2-1, but they couldn't score after that.
Dallas head coach Pete Deboer said of Johnston's goal that "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. Just phenomenal."
It was Oettinger who got the start again for the Stars, and came up with a big game with their season on the line. Oettinger stopped all but one of the 23 shots he saw from the Kraken, giving him a stellar .957 save percentage in the win.
Getting the start for the Kraken was Philipp Grubauer, who was a tough luck loser despite another strong performance in goal. Grubauer turned aside 26 out of the 28 shots on goal that the Stars had, recording a .929 save percentage.
Seattle forward Jordan Eberle said that "From Day One, everyone's kind of written us off. 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."
Up next, the Stars advance to face the second newest team in the NHL, facing the Vegas Golden Knights in the western conference finals, giving them the chance to eliminate the two newest teams in the league. Seattle enters the offseason as they look to go farther next season.
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