Big second period lifts Dallas Stars past Seattle Kraken

Wyatt Johnston and Tyler Seguin both collected one goal and one assist and the host Dallas Stars scored three times in a dominant second period in a 4-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken, evening their Western Conference second-round playoff series. Evgenii Dadonov and Joe Pavelski also scored for the Stars in Game 2. Goaltender Jake Oettinger made 25 saves, 12 of them in the third period. “Everybody was good,” said Stars coach Pete DeBoer. “Game 1, Joe Pavelski was great. I thought we didn’t have any passengers tonight.” Tye Kartye and Jordan Eberle scored for the Kraken.
Goalie Philipp Grubauer stopped 33 shots in a strong performance while receiving little offensive support. Game 3 will be Sunday in Seattle at 8:30 p.m. CT. It will be broadcast on TNT. Johnston’s second goal of the playoffs opened the scoring at 3:43 of the second period. His deflection of a point shot was stopped, but the rookie center converted the rebound. Dadonov doubled the lead at the period’s 9:05 mark when his wraparound attempt just managed to cross the line for his fourth goal of the playoffs.

Kartye provided the Kraken a glimmer of hope two minutes later when he wired a top-shelf wrist shot from the left circle for his second playoff goal. However, Pavelski notched his fifth goal of the series with 3:03 remaining in the frame by chipping home a rebound for the power-play tally to make it a 3-1 count. “We looked for a response. I knew we would get one,” DeBoer said. “That’s our game. We knew we didn’t play our game for long enough in the first game, so we wanted to make sure we put in a 60-minute effort tonight. I thought we got that.” Dallas registered a 19-9 edge in shots on goal during the one-sided middle frame. The Kraken managed to gain some momentum early in the third period, but could not pull closer before Seguin extended the Dallas lead at 10:59 of the period by deflecting a point shot through the five-hole for his fifth goal of the playoffs. Eberle made it a 4-2 game when he notched his third goal of the playoffs with 3:28 remaining in regulation, but it was too little, too late for the visitors. DeBoer praised Oettinger’s play. “He’s money,” DeBoer said. “You just take it for granted, but I knew he would be really great again tonight and good in tough moments. When they’re pressing you and on your heels, he makes a slurry of three or four saves, and let us get through that. It’s the timeliness of the saves.”