STARS MOVE ONWARD
Wyatt Johnston is no longer a teenager, not that he’s played like one at all during his rookie season with a Dallas Stars team that is headed to the Western Conference final.
A day after his 20th birthday, Johnston scored a crucial goal for the Stars off a hard ricochet in their 2-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken in Game 7 in the second-round series Monday night.
“It’s a world-class play by one of the youngest players in the league,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “He’s been fantastic all year. He’s a big part of our group. It feels like the deeper we get, the more we rely on him, the more responsibility he wants.”
Roope Hintz also scored for the Stars and 24-year-old goalie Jake Oettinger had 22 saves while again bouncing back after a loss.
Dallas moves on to play first-year Stars coach 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 different 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 for the season in a row, a year after their only title.
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. The kid who has played in every game this season, and is living with veteran Joe Pavelksi’s family, 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 his 33 saves when Seattle won at Colorado 2-1 in another Game 7 to knock out last year’s Stanley Cup champion.
Sunday’s late result
Golden Knights 5, Oilers 2: Vegas scored the final four goals of the game and eliminated host Edmonton in six games. Jonathan Marchessault scored three goals, all in the second period when the Golden Knights took control of the game.
In defeating Edmonton 5-2 to win their playoff series in six games, the Golden Knights became the third team in NHL playoffs history to make the conference final four times in their first six seasons.
The New York Rangers advanced at least that far their first seven seasons (1926-27 to 1932-33) and won the Stanley Cup twice. The St. Louis Blues made it four of their first five seasons (1967-68 to 1971-72).