Comments / New

Burn The Tape That Gave Kraken a 2-1 Series Lead

Credit: Tim Heitman / Dallas Stars

Game 3 of the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs was one that need not be rehashed. Burn the tape, flush it out of the system, and move on to the response in Game 4 to tie the series.

The only thing that needs to be learned from this is the status of stud defenseman Miro Heiskanen.

The Stars let a disastrous second period rattle them off their game, and it started with the injury to Heiskanen. He had a puck ride up and hit him in the face, causing him to crumple to the ground in front of Jake Oettinger. Because Dallas didn’t have possession of the puck, the play wasn’t blown dead, and Seattle scored on the ensuing scramble by the team trying to accommodate their downed teammate. He would not return to the game due to an upper-body injury, and you have to wonder if that was a choice by the team with the game so out of hand by the time he could have been ready to come back.

That play was the start of a three-goal outburst in the span of 4:20 to open an absolute beating on. The game didn’t get any better, though they did manage to get past Philipp Grubauer twice courtesy of a nice turnover they capitalized on with Mason Marchment one-timing a cross-ice pass from Evgenii Dadonov. The other came courtesy of Jan Hakanpää.

Oettinger didn’t finish the game after surrendering five in the middle frame, arguably the worst period the Stars have played in months. The proverbial nail in the coffin was the fifth goal against in the waning minute of the second period on a breakaway. That killed off any momentum they might have been able to get off Marchment’s goal. Scott Wedgewood would enter the game in the third period and surrender a shorthanded goal to the speedy Kraken and then a late-period power play goal against for the 7-2 final.

The Stars have had responses all season to adversity, and they’ll need to dig deep to find one in Seattle to come back to Dallas with the series tied. On the plus side, they did just that in the first round. Maybe inspiration won’t be hard to be found. There’s no doubt they need to find a way to kill the momentum the Kraken found for themselves in this resounding win.

Talking Points