Wyatt Johnson is no longer a teenager, it’s not like he was during his rookie season with the Dallas Stars team going to the Western Conference Finals.
A day after his 20th birthday, Johnson scored a key goal in the Stars’ 2–1 win over the Seattle Kraken in Game 7 of the second-round series on Monday night.
“This is a world-class game from one of the youngest players in the league,” said Stars coach Pete DeBoer. “He’s been fantastic all year. It’s a big part of our group. It seems like the deeper we go, the more we trust him, the more responsibility he wants.”
Roop Hintze also scored for the Stars and 24-year-old goaltender Jake Oettinger had 22 saves as he bounced back from a loss. (Stars Beat Kraken 2-1 In G7 To Advance To Western Finals, Johnson Scores One Day After His 20th Birthday)
Dallas first-year stars go to play Coach DeBor’s old team, the Vegas Golden Knights. Game 1 of the West Finals is Friday night in Las Vegas.
DeBoer improved to 7–0 in Game 7, making it the fourth different team to lead the way to victory in the final of a best-of-seven series. Darryl Sutter and Scott Bowman are the only other coaches to do so.
It was the fourth time in five seasons that the Stars got a Game 7: everyone else was away from home. They had not won a Game 7 at home since 2000, when they reached the Stanley Cup Finals for a straight season, a year after their only title.
In the only other Game 7 they hosted at the American Airlines Center, the Stars lost 6–1 to St. Louis in a second round series in 2016.
Johnson made it 2–0 with 7:12 remaining when he picked up a puck that bounced off the back board on the left side of the Seattle net. The kid, who has played in every game this season and lives with the veteran Joe Pavelski’s family, then sent a shot over goalkeeper Philipp Grubauer’s shoulder and mask before going into the net. (Stars Beat Kraken 2-1 In G7 To Advance To Western Finals, Johnson Scores One Day After His 20th Birthday)
Grubauer stopped 26 shots, making 33 saves two weeks after Seattle defeated Colorado 2–1 in another Game 7 to oust the previous year’s Stanley Cup champions.
Hintz’s ninth playoff goal was credited with an off count and with 4:01 left in the second period, the deepest the play in the series had gone before a touchdown.
Oliver Björkstrand scored with 17.6 seconds remaining, marking Oettinger’s second shutout of the postseason this season. Björkstrand had scored both goals in Game 7 against the Avalanche that previous month.
The end of this series came just a year after Oettinger’s 64-save performance in another Game 7: Johnny Goudreau’s overtime goal in a 3–2 loss in Calgary ended the first-round series.
Oettinger improved to 5–0 after the loss this season. He allowed four goals on 18 shots during Game 6 in Seattle on Saturday when he was pulled 4 1/2 minutes into the second period.
“Yeah, it’s playoff hockey. I don’t think I had the best series of my career, but it shows what a good team we are,” Oettinger said. “He’s up and down and you know, you think he can break out of it, and the next thing you know, you’re going to the conference finals.”
Dallas and Las Vegas would meet in the Western Conference Finals for the second time in four seasons. The Stars defeated the DeBoer-coached Golden Knights in five games in the 2020 postseason, played in the NHL bubble in Toronto and Edmonton during the pandemic.
The second-ranked Kraken forced a Game 7 on Saturday with a 6-3 win at home.
“We played as hard as we could tonight. We just didn’t get our best team,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “Give Dallas a lot of credit in that regard. To some extent, he responded to the game he played in Game 6. They came home to their home building and put us under pressure.”
Adam Larsen had four of Seattle’s 13 blocked shots in the first quarter, two in quick succession before Dallas made its only power play. After Evgeny Dadonov’s shot was blocked, Larsen deflected Jamie Benn’s rebounding attempt before being checked in front of the net by Stars captain Eli Tolvanan.
Seattle then had seven blocked shots during the power play, preventing the Stars from getting shots on goal, while keeping the puck in their offensive zone throughout.
Kraken only had eight more blocked shots in the rest of the game.
Dallas had the only shot, a short effort from Hintze, when Kraken got their only man advantage after Ben hit the ball with a high stick. It’s late in the first period.
All-Star defender Miro Hiskanen pasted Grubauer with a puck three and a half minutes into the game, but it bounced off the crossbar and went into the back of the net.
