The Dallas Stars took their first lead and never trailed in a 4-2 Game 2 win against the Minnesota Wild at American Airlines Center on Monday.
Scratches: Lyubushkin, Bunting, Erne, Petrovic, Capobianco, Bastian (injured), Hintz (injured), Seguin (SELTIR)
How good was Oettinger in this game? I mean, without him playing lights out, Minnesota probably goes into the first intermission with a one or two-goal lead.
I know fans get frustrated that we don’t always see that version of Oettinger. He can have an off night or two, and has not had his best stastical season. But that game is why they spent $66 million to lock him up for eight years. He can steal a game. When he is on, he’s a top-five goalie in the NHL.
“He’s just an unbelievable goalie,” Wyatt Johnston said. “He was awesome tonight. Made so many huge saves. It was obviously a big win for the team and, obviously, it was great to help try to get him the win.”
JAKE OETTINGER, WHAT A STOP 🤩📺: Watch Wild vs. Stars Game 2 on SN360 or stream on Sportsnet+ pic.twitter.com/XDmpPM7J7z
Oettinger stopped 28 of 30 in the game. But it was the types of saves he was making that made this game special.
Sliding left to right and making a split save. Robbing Matt Boldy with the glove on what looked like an open net. His movement was clean, he was reading the game well in front of him, and he cleaned up some plays by holding onto pucks and allowing his team to settle down when they got a bit scrambly.
If Dallas is going to win this series, they need some of that Oettinger. I don’t think they need him to steal all the games they win, or anything like that. But they need him to be as close to his A-game as possible. He certainly was tonight.
Mats Zuccarello is out tonight. He finished Game 1 and skated this morning. Dallas got blown out in Game 1, has home ice, and is playing agaisnt a team without a key offensive player. They have to find a way to win this game.
Mikko Rantanen took a pass at center ice, got puck jacked, then stopped his feet and reached with his stick. That’s his third minor penalty in four periods of this series, and none of them were in the Dallas end or necessary.
Oettinger makes a HUGE save on a broken play in the slot, and almost immediately, they finally get some puck luck when Johnston’s shot hits the end boards and banks off Jesper Wallstedt’s glove and in. Huge goal that Dallas really needed.
4-on-4 seems to certainly favor the Wild. They will play four aside now after Jamie Benn and Zach Bogosian both go off.
And that is exactly why 4-on-4 favors Minnesota. Their defensemen are too mobile. Jason Robertson makes a good read at the blue line, but when trying to turn it up the other way, he loses the battle. Brock Faber skates in, cuts to the middle, and roofs a shot off the pad of Oettinger. Filthy.
QUINN HUGHES FINDS BROCK FABER FOR HIS FIRST CAREER #STANLEYCUP PLAYOFF GOAL!!! 🙌NHL x @massmutual pic.twitter.com/erIyIiSWK3
Colin Blackwell (5-foot-8 maybe) laid a MASSIVE open-ice hit on Yakov Trenin (6-foot-2). It was a clean hit on a hospital pass from Bogosian. Trenin stayed down and left the game holding his face. He did not return. Marcus Foligno tried to fight Blackwell, but he wasn’t having it.
Colin Blackwell Laying the WOOD! pic.twitter.com/Fm2lfMoJTN
Dallas has to find a way to put up more resistance around its own net. Oettinger has been fantastic, but the Stars have gotten consistently beaten to their own net and then outmuscled when the puck gets there. Can’t ask Oettinger to make that many point-blank saves.
The intensity has picked up in a hurry in this game.
Rantanen makes his first big play of the series, playing a perfect give-and-go with Matt Duchene off the rush on a power play. Duchene then goes into a massive jumping celebration, Rantanen bumps Joel Eriksson Ek from behind, and chaos takes over. Somehow, Dallas ends up shorthanded. But they have the lead.