Wyatt Johnston scored the game-winning goal in the third period and the Dallas Stars beat the Seattle Kraken 2-1 on Monday to advance to the Western Conference Final.
Roope Hintz scored the other Stars goal. Evgenii Dadonov and Thomas Harley collected aids. Jake Oettinger stopped 22 shots for the Stars.
Oliver Bjorkstrand scored the Kraken goal on an assist from Yanni Gourde, while Philipp Grubauer made 26 saves.
The Stars started the game strong, putting a lot of pressure in the Kraken zone and getting a few rebounds in the slot in the first minutes of the game.
The Stars got the game’s first power play when Eeli Tolvanen cross-checked Jamie Benn 7:18 into the game. They couldn’t take advantage of it, despite some good shots from the point.
Benn was punished in turn, after 15:21 of play in the first period, for high batting.
Both teams shot nine times in the first period, without scoring.
It took until the second period for Roope Hintz, with 4:01 to go in the period, to take advantage of a poor play by defender Jamie Oleksiak on the blue line to come with plenty of space against Grubauer and score the first goal of the game. Hintz fired a powerful wrist shot into the top of the net on the far side. The forward gets his ninth goal of the playoffs.
The Kraken already had 16 blocked shots after two periods, also leading 25-23 in hits.
The Seattle troops began the third period with the energy of desperation. The team, however, was unable to beat Oettinger.
Johnston doubled the Stars’ lead with an accurate backhand shot 12:48 into the third period. Johnston grabbed the puck in the corner of the rink, before coming back close to the net and lodging the puck above Grubauer’s shoulder.
With less than four minutes left in the game, the Kraken had just two shots on goal in the third period.
Bjorkstrand gave the Kraken some hope by scoring with 18 seconds left. It was, however, too little too late for the Kraken.
The Stars will therefore face the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference final.
