The Dallas Stars have pushed their way into the second round of the playoffs, after beating the Minnesota Wild in six games on Sunday. It’s the first time Dallas has made it to the second round of the NHL Playoffs since losing to Detroit in the 2008 Western Conference Finals. We recap how it happened.
Dallas Stars vs. Minnesota Wild Series Recap
Stars showed more weaknesses than strengths
Coming into the series, it was a very popular opinion that Dallas’ best chance to advance would be by way of a strong offense in high scoring games, and that it was. However, despite five of the six games seeing four goals or more, their were times when the Stars could not score.
These long offensive droughts lead to the losses in games three and five, as Dallas looked lost, without their number one centre, Tyler Seguin. Seguin has been out with an Achilles injury since March, but returned during Game two, only to re-injure himself, sitting out games three through six.
The Wild also took advantage of the Stars sitting on their heels. During Game three, Dallas took a 2-0 lead in St. Paul, and the Wild showed that it was not hard to take advantage and come back to a surprise win of the game.
Dallas was confident coming into game five with a 3-1 series lead, and allowed Minnesota to get out to a 2-0 lead just five minutes into the game, another one the Stars would lose.
Then there was Sunday. Dallas rode a 4-0 advantage into the third period of game six, only to give up four goals, (almost a fifth that was inches away from crossing the goal line to tie the game with 33 seconds left) and escape with a 5-4 win.
There were times where the Stars looked like they could lose the series, but thanks to Jamie Benn and Jason Spezza, the team held on.
Benn, Spezza ride hot streaks into playoffs
Not a single Stars player had more than five points during the first round of the playoffs, except Jamie Benn and Jason Spezza, who combined for 19.
Both used four goals, and a handful of assists to to help lead the Stars to that ever-so-special second round appearance.
Spezza contributed on both of the team’s first and last points of the first round. During the second period of game one, he faked a slap shot and put the puck right over Devan Dubnyk’s shoulder on the short side. The goal put Dallas up 1-0 of course, but also set the tone for the Stars’ wins in game’s one and two.
Then of course, he took his performance to new heights in game six, scoring a goal and three assists, including one to Alex Goligoski for the clincher.
Benn has also done his share of scoring for the Stars during the postseason. By contributing a point during each of Dallas’ six playoff games, he is one game away from tying the franchise record for playoff point streaks.
Dallas will need their contributions to get passed Saint Louis in the second round.
Lehtonen the key for Dallas’ success
Kari Lehtonen has been nothing short of spectacular during the closing month of the regular season, starting 10 of the final 12 games, and winning seven of them.
The 32-year old out id co-starter Anti Niemi, only giving up one goal in his first two games of the series, opposed to the seven that Niemi gave up in his only two games of the series.
We’ll get back to Kari Lehtonen’s success, however, in just a bit.
Up next? Saint Louis
The Blues took down Chicago in seven games to earn the right to travel to Dallas to start their second round. Both Dallas and Saint Louis shut each other out during the regular season, however, Saint Louis took three separate overtime wins against the Stars.
How did the goalies fair in those games? Lehtonen had the shutout, went 1-0-1, and carried an impressive .955 save percentage against the Blues. Niemi however went 0-1-2, and had just a .899 percentage, and allowing 3.22 goals per game. The choice is easy.
However, star forward Tyler Seguin and Head Coach Lindy Ruff will need to make a choice as well: Is Seguin ready to come back? The Stars are expected to make that decision, or at least have an update on Tuesday.
The second round schedule for the playoffs will be announced later this week as well.
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