DALLAS — Roope Hintz and 19-year-old Wyatt Johnston scored targets and the Dallas Stars superior to the Western Conference ultimate with a 2-1 win over the Seattle Kraken in Game 7 on Monday evening.
Dallas strikes on to play first-year Stars coach Pete DeBoer’s former crew, the Vegas Golden Knights. Game 1 of the West ultimate is Friday evening in Las Vegas.
DeBoer improved to 7-0 in Game 7s, this being the fourth completely different crew he led to a win within the finale of a best-of-seven sequence that went the space. Darryl Sutter and Scott Bowman are the one different coaches to do this.
It was the fourth time in 5 seasons the Stars acquired a Game 7 – the others have been all away from house. They hadn’t received a Game 7 at house since 2000, after they made the Stanley Cup Final. In the one different Game 7 they hosted at American Airlines Center, the Stars misplaced 6-1 to St. Louis in a second-round sequence in 2016.
Johnston made it 2-0 with 7:12 left, when he collect a puck that ricocheted off the again boards to the left of the Seattle internet. He then despatched a shot that went off the shoulder and masks of goalie Phillip Grubauer earlier than going into the web.
Grubauer stopped 26 photographs, two weeks after his 33 saves when Seattle received at Colorado 2-1 in one other Game 7 to knock out final yr’s Stanley Cup champion.
Hintz’s ninth purpose of the playoffs was credited as an unassisted tally and got here with 4:01 left within the second interval, the deepest on this sequence any recreation acquired earlier than a rating.
Oliver Bjorkstrand scored with 17.6 seconds left, stopping the shutout for 24-year-old Stars goalie Jake Oettinger, who completed with 21 saves.
It was precisely one yr after Oettinger’s 64-save efficiency in one other Game 7 – a 3-2 loss at Calgary after Johnny Gaudreau’s OT purpose ended the first-round sequence.
The 24-year-old Oettinger improved to 5-0 after losses this postseason. He allowed 4 targets on 18 photographs throughout Game 6 in Seattle on Saturday, when he was pulled 4 1/2 minutes into the second interval.
Dallas and Las Vegas will meet within the Western Conference Final for the second time in 4 seasons. The Stars beat the DeBoer-coached Golden Knights in 5 video games in 2020, the postseason that was performed within the NHL’s bubble in Toronto and Edmonton throughout the pandemic.
Adam Larsson had 4 of Seattle’s 13 blocked photographs within the first interval, two in fast succession earlier than Dallas had its solely energy play. After blocking Evgenii Dadonov’s shot, Larsson knocked away Jamie Benn’s try on a rebound earlier than the Stars captain was cross-checked by by Eeli Tolvanen in entrance of the web.
Seattle then had seven blocked photographs throughout the energy play, not permitting the Stars to get a shot on purpose even whereas they beautiful a lot stored the puck of their offensive zone that total time.
The Kraken had solely eight extra blocked photographs the remainder of the sport.
Dallas had the one shot, a short-hander strive by Hintz, when the Kraken had its solely man-advantage after Benn was referred to as for a excessive stick later within the first interval.
Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen acquired a puck previous Grubauer solely 3 1/2 minutes into the sport, but it surely ricocheted off the crossbar and went out of play behind the web.
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