Stars, shining brightlywhen it counts, ready for title shot
The Dallas Stars were mired in a six-game losing streak when the season was paused for 4 1/2 months because of the coronavirus pandemic, and have been outscored and outshot since getting inside the NHL bubble.
Yet now they are one of only three teams still playing, already set for their first StanleyCupFinalsince2000.
“We’re finding ways to win right now, and that’s all thatmatters,” captain Jamie Benn said.
With their captain and two rookies scoring goals in another comeback, the Stars wrapped up the bestof-sevenWesternConference Final in five games with a 3-2 overtime victory against the top-seeded Vegas Golden Knights.
“We’re not going home!” goaltender Anton Khudobin screamed after his 34-save performance in the clincher.
From theirmiserable 1-7-1 start to the season way back inOctober, to an unexpected coaching change for off-ice issues in December after they were back on the winning track, and then that 0-4-2 span intomid-March, these Stars still have a chance to win their second Stanley Cup championship.
Tampa Bay took a 3-1 series lead over the New York Islanders into Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final on Tuesday night, also in Edmonton.
Dallas trailed 2-0 in the opening seconds of the third period Monday night, and finally got on the board with Benn’s goal midway through the period.
Joel Kiviranta, whose OT goal in Game 7 of the second-roundclincher overColorado capped his hat trick,
then tied the game with 3:47 left. Denis Gurianov scored the game-winner on a onetimer during a power play 3:36 into overtime.
“We’ve done this all year. We’ve come back from behind all year,” interim coach Rick Bowness said. “Down 2-0, there was no panic. We just were a very confident group that we could respond to the challenge.”
The finale against the Golden Knights marked the fifth time this postseason Dallas cameback to win when trailing after the first period — and the third time to win when trailing after two periods.
The Stars have also won six games after giving up the first goal, two short of the franchise record set by their 1999 Stanley Cup-winning team. They are 5-0 in overtime, and 10-1 in onegoal games.
The Stars finished the Western Conference Final
with 118 shots on goal — 48 fewer than Vegas had in the five games. In their 21 postseason games overall, they have been outscored 64-62, makingthemthe first teamto enter the Stanley Cup Final with a negative goal differential in the postseason since the 1968 St. Louis Blues.
“We’re aconfidentgroup,“Tyler Seguin said. “There’s no panic, there’s composure. There’s just knowing that we’re going to get the job done, and it starts one shift at a time, and we have key goals at big moments, and everything’s falling in our favor right now. We’ve just have to keep going.”
The 65-year-old Bowness, who joined the Stars as an assistant coach before the 2018-19 season, became the interim head coach in December after second-year head coach JimMontgomery was fired. Montgomery, who took the Stars to the second round of the playoffs and a double-overtime Game 7
loss to eventual Stanley Cup champion St. Louis in his only full season, later entered alcohol rehabilitation.
“Bones is a big part of this team,” Benn said. “It’s been a crazy year for all of us, and I’m sure especially him.”
Stanley Cup winner hired to coach Caps
Peter Laviolettewas hired Tuesday as coach of the Washington Capitals, who hope to harness his ability to quickly take a team to the Stanley Cup Final in what could be the final few years of their championship window.
Laviolette is the first Cup-winning coach hired in the franchise’s 46-year history and only the second with previousNHLhead coaching experience during the Alex Ovechkin era.
He takes over for Todd Reirden, who was given his first head job and then fired following a back-to-back second-round playoff exits.