Thursday night, the recipe for success on the ice was sharp shooting. The Avengers line of Roope Hintz, Joe Pavelski, and Jason Robertson were absolutely buzzing all night long with all three players putting up multiple points. Roope Hintz and co. shine as the Dallas Stars prevail in game five, as they now have a 3-2 series lead in round two against the Seattle Kraken.
The first period would be an extremely hard one to explain to fans if they were only looking at the stats. The Kraken were outshooting the Stars 14-5 after 20 minutes of game time, but somehow the Stars were essentially in full control of the game leading 2-0.
Just over five minutes into the game, Wyatt Johnston (still 19 years old) opened up the scoring off a great back door feed from Jamie Benn. Then, just a little over a minute later, Roope Hintz snapped one home from the left side. AAC seemed to be rocking and the Stars were in a good place, but we all know that a 2-0 lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey.
Just as Dallas dominated the first period, the Kraken did the same in the second period. Joe Pavelski scored his seventh goal of the series 35 seconds into the second period, which put him past Sidney Crosby on the all time active playoffs scoring record. He’s now only one goal behind Alex Ovechkin on that active list. Pavs is proving father time wrong as the 38 year old seems to be one of the most important players on the ice night in and night out.
However, after that goal from Pavs, it was all Kraken for the rest of the period. They scored two goals in about five and a half minutes of game time and were right back in the game. The Kraken held the puck in the offensive zone for what seemed like an eternity in the second period, and the Stars couldn’t take a hold of the momentum throughout the second 20 minutes.
The third period was incredibly stressful for Dallas fans as the Kraken did much more of what they did in the second period. Luckily there weren’t any goals allowed, and Roope Hintz and co. decided to keep in rolling after the halfway point of the third period.
Roope got a wide open net just in front of the goalie, and put one home to make the Stars lead 4-2. The momentum had swung back in favor of Dallas, and the Stars wouldn’t look back after that. Roope ended the night with three points, Pavs had two, and Jason Robertson had three assists. The Avengers line was the best line on the ice between the two teams, and it wasn’t particularly close.
The Dallas Stars now have a good lead heading into game six in Seattle. They have a chance to close out the series on the road for the second round in a row, after beating the Minnesota Wild in game six in round one. If the Avengers line is playing like they did Thursday night, and Jake Oettinger is once again locked in between the pipes, it’s going to be hard to beat the Stars Saturday evening.
Roope Hintz and co. shine as the Dallas Stars prevail in game five and take a 3-2 series lead headed to Seattle.
