The Dallas Stars kicked off the second round against the Seattle Kraken Tuesday night, and much like round one against the Minnesota Wild, the first game of the series ended in sadness. The Stars didn’t look like the same team that had played in round one so Joe Pavelski’s miracle four goal game wasn’t enough for the Stars to win in overtime Tuesday.
While the Stars looked like they were buzzing right out of the gates, and Pavelski got the scoring started last night just two minutes into the game, the Kraken didn’t seem to mind. Seattle was quick to get the score tied at one just a few minutes into the game. Pavs once again did the thing and retook the lead less than a minute later, but after that it was all Kraken in the first period.
Jake Oettinger wasn’t as sharp as he was in the last three games of round one, and it showed in the first period. He let in three goals in the span of 52 seconds of game time, and suddenly the Stars were down 4-2 when the first period ended. The score remained the same throughout the second period, and they were going to have to mount a massive comeback in order to push the game to overtime.
In the third period, Pavelski recorded his hat trick almost ten minutes into the period, and just over three minutes later had a WILD deflection that tied the game. AAC was rockin’, the vibes were good, bing bong was playing through the arena’s speakers, and the Stars looked like they had sucked the life out of the Kraken.
Seattle won the game just over 12 minutes into overtime, and much like round one, the Stars drop the first game at home in overtime. Luckily, the Stars were in this game with most everyone else on the team not contributing as much as they had in the previous round.
Oettinger was clearly not himself in the first period. Jason Robertson, Tyler Seguin, and Roope Hintz were not necessarily nonfactors, but they weren’t as noticeable as they had been in the playoffs so far. The defense had a lot of trouble adjusting to Seattle’s speed. It seemed like they had gotten used to the physicality of Minnesota and weren’t prepared for how fast the Kraken were going to be Tuesday night.
The fact that the Stars were able to push this game to overtime was a blessing in disguise. I’m expecting a big performance from the team Thursday night in order to tie this series up before going to Seattle. In the end, Joe Pavelski’s miracle four goal game wasn’t enough for the Stars as they dropped game one.
