Dallas Stars defeat Seattle Kraken 2-1 in Game 7 to advance to Western Conference Finals against Vegas Golden Knights
- Oliver Bjorkstrand scored with 17.6 seconds left to save Dallas from the shutout
- Roope Hintz’s ninth playoff goal credited as an unassisted tally
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Roope Hintz and Wyatt Johnston, 19, scored and the Dallas Stars advanced to the Western Conference Finals with a 2-1 win over the Seattle Kraken in Game 7 on Monday night.
Dallas will face Stars coach Pete DeBoer’s former team, the Vegas Golden Knights. Game 1 of the Western Finals is Friday night in Las Vegas.
DeBoer improved to 7-0 in Game 7, the fourth different team he’s led to a win in the final of a best-of-seven series that has gone the distance.
Darryl Sutter and Scott Bowman are the only other coaches to do so.
It was the fourth time in five seasons the Stars had gotten a Game 7 – the others were all away from home. They hadn’t won a seventh home game since 2000, when they reached the Stanley Cup Final.
The Dallas Stars defeated the Seattle Kraken 2-1 in Game 7 of their playoff series
Streamers spilled from the rafters as Dallas celebrated their home win
Dallas Stars’ Wyatt Johnston #53 celebrates a goal against Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer #31
In the only other Game 7 they hosted at the American Airlines Center, the Stars lost 6-1 to St. Louis in a second-round series in 2016.
Johnston made it 2-0 with 7:12 to go when he recovered a puck that ricocheted off the back boards to the left of the Seattle net.
He then sent a shot that came out of goalkeeper Phillip Grubauer’s shoulder and mask before entering the net.
Grubauer stopped 26 shots, two weeks shy of his 32 saves when Seattle beat Colorado 2-1 in another Game 7 to eliminate last year’s Stanley Cup champion.
Hintz’s ninth postseason goal was credited as an unassisted tally and came with 4:01 left in the second period, the deepest in this series before a score.
Oliver Bjorkstrand scored with 17.6 seconds left, preventing the shutout of 24-year-old Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger, who finished with 21 saves.
Roope Hintz, Joe Pavelski and defender Colin Miller celebrate after Hintz scores a goal
It was exactly a year after Oettinger’s 64-save performance in another Game 7 – a 3-2 loss at Calgary after Johnny Gaudreau’s overtime goal ended the first-round streak.
Oettinger, 24, improved to 5-0 after playoff losses. He allowed four goals on 18 shots in Game 6 at Seattle on Saturday, when he was fired 4 1/2 minutes into the second period.
Dallas and Las Vegas will meet in the Western Conference Finals for the second time in four seasons.
The Stars beat the DeBoer-coached Golden Knights in five games in 2020, the playoffs played in the NHL bubble of Toronto and Edmonton during the pandemic.
