May The Fourth Be With You (It Was Certainly With the Stars)

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Following Tuesday Night’s heartbreaking waste of Joe Pavelski’s triumphant four goal night, the Dallas Stars had everything to prove heading into tonight’s second game against the Seattle Kraken.

And, by and large, they did. Yes, they still let the Kraken score twice, but they took a commanding lead in the second period and held on to it until the bitter end.

This is the way.

First Period

Jamie Benn and Jamie Oleksiak took matching holding minors less than a minute in, leading to a less than exciting two minutes of four-on-four.

First period penalty seemed to be a momentum shift for the Stars, had a perfect power play except for scoring, genuinely do not know how they didn’t get it past Grubauer.

The Stars did everything but score this period and it wasn’t for lack of trying.

Shots: Stars 10, Kraken 4
Goals: Stars 0, Kraken 0

Second Period

Mason Marchment’s commitment to physical comedy continues. After actually receiving a fine for embellishment this season, he’s back at it in the post season, but this time managed to get to still land the Stars with a power play as Carson Soucy took both a slashing and interference penalty on him.

The ensuing power play was absolutely terrible for the Stars and had two close shorthanded chances from the Kraken.

Seconds after the end of the power play though, Calder snub Wyatt Johnston scored 5×5.

Which opened a floodgate, as Evgenii Dadonov broke the Stars’ wraparound curse.

Jake Oettinger proved that he actually is human on an answering goal from Tye Kartye on a breakaway.

But instead of allowing the Kraken to go on a scoring spree like Tuesday night’s game, Joe Pavelski ended a 37 minute scoring drought with his fifth of the series. Assists credited to Wyatt Johnston and Tyler Seguin, so it’s at least a partial roommate goal.

Shots: Stars 30, Kraken 14
Goals: Stars 3, Kraken 1

Third Period

The Kraken missed the net by centimeters early in the period and certainly tried harder in the third than they had in the previous two periods. After Tyler Seguin’s goal with a little over nine minutes left in the period, the Stars had only one shot on goal until the end of the game.

Scholars are still trying to figure out exactly how Seguin’s tip-in found the mark, but here it is if you’d like to watch it again and again and again.

Thomas Harley took a tripping penalty and gave Seattle their first power play of the game, but the Stars penalty kill was still rolling deep and the Kraken only managed one shot on goal.

Miro Heiskanen chose the most inopportune time to break his stick and was forced to participate in an odd man rush without it, resulting in Jordan Eberle getting his Kraken leading third goal of the playoffs.

Despite having their goalie pulled, the Kraken didn’t manage to tie anything up and the Stars will take that victory into a two day break.

Shots: Stars 37, Kraken 27
Goals: Stars 4, Kraken 2

Game 3 will be Sunday night in Seattle, puck drop currently scheduled for 8:30 pm CDT.