The Dallas Stars finished the regular season with a shootout win against the St. Louis Blues.
The Dallas Stars finished the regular season with a shootout win against the St. Louis Blues.
The Dallas Stars went into Wednesday's game against the St. Louis Blues knowing that one point would complete their final mission for the season - to clinch the Western Conference and lock up home ice until at least the Stanley Cup Final.
In a weird bit of symmetry, the season ended the same way it began - with a 2-1 shootout win over the Blues at the American Airlines Center.
Jake Oettinger made two unbelievable saves, one during the first period and one during overtime, and stopped all three shootout attempts to seal the victory and first place in the West for the Stars.
The team had already locked up first in the Central Division, but Vancouver could have overtaken Dallas via a tiebreaker if Dallas hadn't collected a point and the Canucks had won their final game Thursday. A third period game-tying goal from Mason Marchment locked up the necessary point for the Stars, and then Oettinger's brilliance secured the extra point and one final regular season win on fan appreciation night.
The game was tight and physical from the start, with Dallas able to crash the Blues net and get out to a quick shot advantage in the first period. Then, St. Louis went on the power play and Oettinger turned into Superman, diving across the crease to make what everyone thought at the moment could be the save of the season for the Stars netminder.
In the second period, Dallas allowed St. Louis to stay in the game, unable to beat Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington who was locked in all night. Finally, the 0-0 deadlock was broken when a failed clear led to a goal from Robert Thomas with just under three minutes left before the second intermission.
In the third period, Dallas continued to pepper Binnington, and finally capitalized on a point shot rebound. Chaos in front of the net allowed Marchment to find the puck on a deflection, spin around and beat an outstretched Binnington for a 1-1 tie. The Stars continued to push for the winning goal, but in the end were happy to settle for the Western Conference clinching point and head to overtime.
To start overtime, an almost immediate two-on-one situation came up with Miro Heiskanen and Jason Robertson barreling down on the Blues net. A perfect pass from Heiskanen let Robertson fire off a wrister, but a sprawling Binnington swiped a sure goal away with the glove hand. Later, the Blues had a similar odd-man advantage, and out of position, Oettinger reached back casually with his stick and deflected a shot from Thomas just enough to deny him his second goal of the game and prevent the Blues from winning. Oettinger outdid himself from earlier in the game, and suddenly another save was the talk of the NHL.
The five minute overtime finished scoreless, and the two teams went into the shootout. Robertson tucked home the first attempt for Dallas, and Oettinger stopped all three Blues attempts to send the fans home happy one last time before the postseason began.
Three takeaways:
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The Stars regular season is now complete, finishing the season with 113 points. That is the second most points in a season in the history of the franchise, only surpassed by the 1998-99 Stanley Cup winning team (114 points). The Stars opponent is not yet locked in, but they could either face the Los Angeles Kings or the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas holds a one point lead and the tiebreaker over the Kings, and both play Thursday night to confirm their final places in the standings.
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