Depth scoring concerns growing for Stars after another shutout loss
The Stars remain in control of the series but depth scoring is becoming a bigger concern.
WINNIPEG — Asked after the morning skate if his remarkable Game 7 playoff success helps in elimination games, Dallas Stars coach Pete DeBoer briefly smiled and said: “Well, it’s not Game 7.”
But it may as well have been for the Winnipeg Jets, who, when faced with elimination Thursday night, produced their best game of the series and dumped the Stars 4-0 in Game 5. The victory cut Dallas’s series lead to 3-2 and forced a Game 6 Saturday in Texas.
DeBoer is 9-0 as a National Hockey League coach in Game 7s, and the Jets would love to force him to try making it 10 in a row.
For now, the Stars still control the series.
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They are 5-1 at home in this Stanley Cup tournament, have stockpiled a mountain of playoff experience in recent seasons, are getting great goaltending from Jake Oettinger and still have two chances to win one game. And their coach, of course, is perfect in Game 7s.
But their grip on the Western Conference semifinal got a little greasier with the Game 5 loss, especially with struggling Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck finding his A-game and the Stars’ talented and deep group of forwards still mostly shooting blanks.
“I thought we actually weathered the storm okay,” DeBoer said about the Jets’ surge at the start. “Jake was really good early, which you need. I think … the goal off our own skate (that made it 1-0) … that’s a tough one to give up. And then we give up the five-on-three goal. You go on the road, especially in an elimination game, you get two goals like that, it’s really tough to win.
“I think we could have done a better job trying to create a little bit more offence, obviously. But we did have a few looks — one off the crossbar, you know, a couple here and there. But not enough. They played with a desperation level like it was an elimination game. We were a little bit off that.”
The double-deflected Mark Schiefele shot, which took its second carom off the shin of Dallas defenceman Thomas Harley, opened scoring for Winnipeg at 6:17 of the second period. And Nikolaj Ehlers’ power-play goal — after tripping penalties 11 seconds apart to Stars Alex Petrovic and Esa Lindell — doubled the lead at 2:20 of the third.
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But in the first 43 minutes, the Stars managed only 11 shots on Hellebuyck, who heard the happy sound of Tyler Seguin’s wrister ping his crossbar during a two-on-one in the middle period.
Dallas leads in this series because Oettinger has been much better than Hellebuyck, special team success has favoured them, and their top line of Mikko Rantanen, Roope Hintz and Mikael Granlund has been unstoppable in a couple of games.
Most of their forwards, however, have gone missing offensively.
Seguin, Matt Duchene, Jason Robertson, Jamie Benn, Wyatt Johnston, Mason Marchment and Evgenii Dadonov combined for 165 goals in the regular season — or about two per game. Collectively, they have one goal in this series, by Johnston in Game 4.
The Stars’ leading scorer in the regular season with 30 goals and 82 points, Duchene hasn’t scored in 12 playoff games this spring while producing just five assists, all of them on the power play.
“Obviously, you want to help your team win,” Duchene said. “I’m doing a lot of good things out there. You know, you make five or six plays a night for Grade-A (chances) and it doesn’t go. What can you do? You just keep going. It’ll go at some point. You’ve just got to keep doing the same thing over and over.
“I’ve had a million hot streaks and a million slumps in my career; I’ve played a long time. And you know, it’s all about just putting your best game out on the ice. And I thought our line had some really good looks tonight, and easily could have been the difference. So it’ll go here one of these days, and hopefully … the dam breaks and away we go.”
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Seguin, who missed most of the season with injury but produced nine goals and 21 points in 20 games, has two goals and two assists in 12 playoff games.
He had one shot on Hellebuyck in Game 5, matching Johnston. Duchene had two shots.
“Yeah, I mean you want to produce,” Seguin said. “I’m having some chances, and sometimes they don’t go in, sometimes they go in. So I’m looking for that first one.
“I thought they played great. I mean, they’re a top team in the league, right? So they played a great game. Their goalie played a great game. We were one shot away there for a little bit. We’re excited to go home and try to close it out there.
“Any series, there’s ups and downs, and we’ve had a good series so far. Now we get a good chance to respond at home.”
Asked about the urgency to avoid another trip to Winnipeg by ending the series Saturday in Dallas, Seguin said: “For sure, it’s a long flight. So, definitely.”
“I don’t think it was a horrible game by us,” Duchene said. “We didn’t give up anything five-on-five all night. We had some looks, Hellebuyck played really well, that’s the way it goes. We knew this wasn’t going to be easy. We knew they weren’t going to … roll over on us. We’ll go into Dallas here and see if we can end it.
“You never want to give a team life. We felt like we needed to win this one. You don’t want to give them any life at all. We don’t want to come back here for Game 7, obviously, up 3-1 at one point. It might take seven, though. I mean, they’re a good enough team, it could. We’re going to go home and try and put our best game out on the ice and go from there.”
