To say Jake Oettinger has been amazing in this first round series against the Calgary Flames would be a tremendous understatement. He’s been the best player on the ice for the Dallas Stars. Heck, I’d argue that he’s been the best player on the ice, period.
Game six is the only game in which Dallas has outshot the Flames. And yet, here we are in a game seven. Why? Because of Oettinger. And the Stars would need him to be brilliant again. That he was. Look no further than the last sequence of the second period. His teammates in front of him kept getting the puck and failed to get it out of the zone. Miro Heiskanen had a chance and turned the puck over. This happened multiple times and every time, the young goalie was there to clean up the mess.
Luckily for Dallas they took advantage of a few wide open looks at the net too. Jamie Benn opened the scoring less than a minute into the game. Tyler Seguin found wide-open Jamie Benn creeping down the slot. Benn’s one time found the back of the net. The Stars next goal came on a rush in the second period. Less than a minute after Calgary tied the game at 1-1, Joe Pavelski, Jason Robertson and Vladislav Namestnikov played tic-tac-toe with the puck. The result was a shot off the stick of Namestnikov that found the back of the net.
Unfortunately for Dallas they could not keep the Flames from peppering the net. Calgary had 17 shots in the first, 26 in the second and nine in the third. That’s 52 shots on net through regulation. And somehow, Oettinger stopped all but two. On the other end, Dallas only had 23 shots on goal through regulation.
Of course every hockey fans favorite words: overtime in game seven. Well, that is unless its your team in the middle of the overtime period. And that’s where we found the Stars. Somehow, they were able to keep the game tied through regulation.
Overtime was much of the same though. Dallas had some chances but turnovers in the zone allowed for some easy shots on goal. Jake Oettinger was brilliant once again. He faced 11 shots and turned aside 10 of them. Unfortunately, it was the last one that did the Stars in. At the 15:09 mark of the first overtime, Johnny Gaudreau put a puck past Oettinger from an impossible angle. And just like that, the Stars season is over.