Dallas’r Roope Hintz smiles as he celebrates with the bench after scoring against the Seattle Kraken in the second period of Game 7 Monday night in Dallas. Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press
DALLAS — Roope Hintz and 19-year-old Wyatt Johnston scored goals and the Dallas Stars advanced to the Western Conference Final with a 2-1 win over the Seattle Kraken in Game 7 on Monday night.
Dallas moves on to play first-year Stars coach Pete DeBoer’s former team, the Vegas Golden Knights. Game 1 of the West final is Friday night in Las Vegas.
DeBoer improved to 7-0 in Game 7s, this being the fourth team he led to a win in the finale of a best-of-seven series that went the distance.
Darryl Sutter and Scott Bowman are the only other coaches to do that.
It was the fourth time in five seasons the Stars got a Game 7 — the others were all away from home. They hadn’t won a Game 7 at home since 2000, when they made the Stanley Cup Final. In the only other Game 7 they hosted at American Airlines Center, the Stars lost 6-1 to St. Louis in a second-round series in 2016.
Johnston made it 2-0 with 7:12 left, when he gathered a puck that ricocheted off the back boards to the left of the Seattle net. He then sent a shot that went off the shoulder and mask of goalie Phillip Grubauer before going into the net.
Grubauer stopped 26 shots, two weeks after making 32 saves when Seattle won at Colorado 2-1 in another Game 7 to knock out last year’s Stanley Cup champion.
Hintz’s ninth goal of the playoffs was credited as an unassisted tally and came with 4:01 left in the second period, the deepest in this series any game got before a score.
Oliver Bjorkstrand scored with 17.6 seconds left, preventing the shutout for 24-year-old Stars goalie Jake Oettinger, who finished with 21 saves.
It was exactly one year after Oettinger’s 64-save performance in another Game 7 — a 3-2 loss at Calgary after Johnny Gaudreau’s OT goal ended the first-round series.
The 24-year-old Oettinger improved to 5-0 after losses this postseason. 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.
Dallas and Las Vegas will meet in the Western Conference Final for the second time in four seasons. The Stars beat the DeBoer-coached Golden Knights in five games in 2020, the postseason that was played in the NHL’s bubble in Toronto and Edmonton during the pandemic.
NOTES
HURRICANES: Teuvo Teravainen’s roughly monthlong injury absence appears to be near an end.
The Carolina Hurricanes’ forward has shed his no-contact jersey and participated in a full practice Monday ahead of the Eastern Conference Final against Florida. Teravainen hasn’t played since he suffered a hand injury in Game 2 of the first-round series against the New York Islanders.
It’s unclear exactly when he might be ready to play, though his return would be a lift for a team that has kept advancing despite injuries to top-line forwards.
“I think I’m pretty much ready to go,” Teravainen said after Monday’s practice. “So whenever coach puts me out there, I’ll be good.”
Rod Brind’Amour wouldn’t say definitively when that would be, though he noted the extra rest from the series schedule — still unset as of Monday’s practice — could help.
“He’s healthy enough,” Brind’Amour said. “It’s just whether or not he can play. … I’m not going to throw him in if he can’t shoot.”
Teravainen was hurt when New York’s Jean-Gabriel Pageau struck the forward’s hands in an uncalled slashing penalty, with an angry Brind’Amour saying afterward that Pageau “absolutely tomahawk chops him, absolutely.”
At the time, Brind’Amour had said Teravainen had a broken hand that would require surgery. More specifically, the injury turned out to be Teravainen’s left thumb, evidenced by the thick pinkish-brown scar running through the center and along the length of his thumb that was visible as he spoke to reporters in the locker room.
He had recently returned to skating with a few teammates and had been building up his on-ice work. On Monday, that meant rotating in on the penalty kill and other stretches of practice.
Wednesday marks four weeks since the April 19 injury, with surgery following the next day.
SUNDAY’S LATE GAME
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 5, OILERS 2: Jonathan Marchessault scored three goals for his second career postseason hat trick as visiting Vegas beat Edmonton in Game 6 of their second-round series to advance to the Western Conference final.
Reilly Smith and William Karlsson also scored for the Golden Knights, and Ivan Barbashev had two assists. Adin Hill finished with 39 saves.
Connor McDavid and Warren Foegele scored early in the first period for Edmonton, which led 2-1 less than three minutes into the game. Stuart Skinner gave up four goals on 17 shots through two periods, and Jack Campbell stopped all four shots he faced in the third.
Vegas is back in the NHL semifinals for the fourth time in the franchise’s six-year history, and will next face the winner of the series between Dallas and Seattle, which heads to a Game 7 on Monday night.
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