Postgame Beats: Granlund Grants Grand Ones

The Stars won 3-1 to go up, uh, 3-1

How do you know it’s the playoffs in Dallas? Because there was a hat trick by a Finnish Stars Forward who was acquired before the trade deadline. No, not that one, another one. Because they have two, now.

The Stars dealt another soul-crushing defeat to Connor Hellebuyck and the Jets as they grabbed the series by the scruff of its neck. Remember, Winnipeg was the best team in the league this year. Now, they’re down 3-1 to a Stars team that casually added one of the best defensemen in the game to their lineup, but only played him 15 minutes, because why push anything? Someone else will pick up the slack, right?

They did, as Mikael Granlund fired a three-round burst into the Jets’ net while Oettinger calmly stopped everything that came his way, save for one soft goal that I’m not entirely sure he didn’t let in just to taunt his counterpart at the other end, much like an older sibling will pretend to drop the baseball, daring you to run before they can “find it” and fire a strike to home and catch their little brother in a rundown.

It’s just a theory, but is it really so crazy think that Oettinger is toying with the Jets, at this point? He was absolutely fantastic tonight, but he did it in his trademark way: Looking consistently unbothered no matter the situation.

Hellebuyck, meanwhile, sounded as bothered as it is possible to be bothered in his postgame presser. And can you really blame him, given what he’s had to endure during road games in the postseason, lately?

Blame is immaterial, though. Results are what matter, and the Stars have put up the mirror image (which is reversed, that’s how mirrors work, I checked with a mirror professor at the local university) of their regular season record against the Jets with a 3-1 series lead.

When it matters, the Stars players have been getting it done. And while I think I said something about having a premonition during the season that Granlund would score a big playoff goal, even someone as crazy as I am never would have predicted three of them in one game, against Hellebuyck. But with the Stars right now, betting against a hat trick might be the craziest thing of all.

(Reminder: As always, David and I have a What We Saw, What It Felt Like piece after each game. Here’s this game’s. AfterThoughts will go up tomorrow.)

Lineups

The Stars began the game with an 11 Forward/7 Defensemen lineup (after doing some slighty secretive warmup line rushes):

Granlund-Hintz-Rantanen
Marchment-Duchene-Seguin
Benn-Steel-Dadonov
Robertson-Johnston

Lindell-Ceci
Harley-Heiskanen
Bichsel-Petrovic
Lyubushkin (who rotated in as a seventh defenseman)

Oettinger in goal.

***

Winnipeg rolled with changed lines, too, moving Alex Iafallo up to the top line.

Connor-Scheifele-Iafallo
Ehlers-Lowry-Vilardi
Niederreiter-Namestnikov-Perfetti
Tanev-Barron-Appleton

Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Fleury-Schenn (Schenn drew in for Colin Miller.)

First Period

Jake Oettinger made a great glove save on Vilardi after Miro Heiskanen won a 1v1 battle against Kyle Connor, drawing a roar from the crowd for each Stars player in turn.

With the 11 forwards, Johnston and Robertson essentially ran with a different member of the top line each time out: Rantanen, Granlund, or Hintz. It was a bit of a unique look, but man, throwing out Robertson-Johnston-Rantanen as a non-first line is pretty unfair.

Dallas got a couple looks at Hellebuyck at the other end, but Winnipeg had the better chances early, and Oettinger had to be sharp, including a big save on Cole Perfetti with the torso.

Winnipeg had the better start of the two, with multiple 3-on-2 rushes early that Oettinger had to address. But Luke Schenn, who had been out of the lineup, drew in just in time to grab Mikael Granlund’s stick and rip it out of his hands.

It turns out Schenn knew what he was about, too. Because Granlund stepped into the slot on an entry and just whistled a shot wrist shot underneath Hellebuyck’s glove for the first goal of the game.

Winnipeg had every chance to equalize on a 4-on-1 rush after a Dadonov pass from behind the net missed everyone, but the chance was had by their fourh line, and Morgan Barron threw a pass into Mason Appleton’s skates, short-circuiting the entire chance.

It was one of a couple let-offs for Dallas in the first period as shots mounted to 10-5 for Winnipeg with a lot of decent chances among them. But Hellebuyck ended up with the same 1-0 deficit to deal with because Jake Oettinger was, well, better.

Tyler Seguin then got nailed for holding behind the Jets’ net (which is in the offensive zone), leading to a power play for the visitors with a minute to go in the period.

Seguin turned Samberg around, which is a nice thing to do. Also, it’s against the rules.

Dallas killed the first half of Seguin’s penalty pretty efficiently. They’d need to match it in the second period. Miro Heiskanen played just 4:10 in the first period, as the Stars predictably managed his minutes with an early lead.

Second Period

The Stars technically did kill the penalty, but literally the moment Seguin hopped back onto the ice, Oettinger surrendered a rough, rough goal to Nikolaj Ehlers on a shot that slipped through his five-hole from an angle it shouldn’t.

It looked a bit like Oettinger was preparing to push across, and Ehlers caught him less than completely set to even the score.

Seguin’s day got worse two minutes later when he took another offensive zone penalty, getting his stick into the skates of the goal-scorer, Ehlers. Dallas had another penalty to kill, and this one was big, with Winnipeg looking to grab the lead with a second quick goal. But Dallas only allowed one good look early, and they killed the rest of the penalty with efficiency.

Lian Bichsel got into it in front of the net with Samberg after Bichsel nearly grabbed a rebound (of which Hellebuyck was giving up a few) after shot off the rush, and the play was whistled down after the net came off. For a moment, I had visions of what it was like in Boston when they’d put Zdeno Chara at the netfront, but this is probably not likely to happen very often, so visions, away with you.

Mikko Rantanen then drew a hooking penalty on Niederreiter to give Dallas a chance to regain the lead, but once again, the second unit had the better looks, with Heiskanen eventually joining them for his first power play action of the game. But no pucks got put on Hellebuyck, and the Jets lived to tell the tale.

Jamie Benn put a big hit on Dylan DeMelo (who got nailed a few times early in this one), and the Stars began to get a better hold of the neutral zone. Ilya Lyubushkin even generated a glorious rebound chance (off some hard work from Robertson) that Rantanen took a swing at, only for the puck to bounce over his stick in front of a fairly empty cage.

Rantanen would have another good chance after Hintz led a pretty dangerous rush into the zone, dropping the puck off for Rantanen and taking his defender to the net. Rantanen didn’t get that shot off, but he would later put a rebound just over the net as the Stars kept pressuring.

The Robertson-Johnston-Rantanen trio generated some good lucks, and Hellebuyck nearly got beaten short side of a deflected shot after a slick Rantanen pass. But Jake Oettinger made the save of the period (though he barely had to move to do it), robbing Kyle Connor after an Iafallo cross-crease pass against the grain looked for all the world like a goal in the making, only for it not to turn out that way.

Scheifele put the rebound wide, and once again, the Stars escaped impending disaster. And this time, they would capitalize on it.

After Rantanen got in front of his man to grab a Jets pass, he sent the puck up to Granlund, who found himself on a 2-on-1 with Roope Hintz.

Granlund looked over at Hintz, then promptly ripped the puck over Hellebuyck’s glove for the 2-1 lead. Oh, and he did so without ever looking at the goal.

I cannot do that, personally. YMMV.

Dallas found themselves down 20-13 in shots on goal, but up 2-1 on a slightly more important counter: the score.

If you were looking for portents, Jamie Benn offered one in the final second of the second period, diving to poke a puck away as the horn sounded, preventing a shot:

The Jets had 20 minutes to avoid going down 3-1 in the series.

Third Period

Dallas had two great chances early in the period, as Dadonov ripped a puck short-side just over the net on a 2-on-1 with Benn, and Rantanen executed a gorgeous midair deflection just a couple of inches over the crossbar. Rantanen even began to celebrate, as he’d executed the tip perfectly in theory, only for the puck to go just a tad too high.

The Stars were buzzing early in the period, and they got a glorious chance to get an insurance goal when Roope Hintz got whacked in the mouth with a heavy stick from Haydn Fleury.

A double minor was called and confirmed after video review, and Dallas had what felt like the game on their stick. But it would be Jake Oettinger who ended up making the biggest play of all, having to made a great pad stop on a Kyle Connor shorthanded breakaway with Heiskanen not quite catching up to him. It was just the latest bail-out from the Stars’ goalie in a crucial spot.

The Stars spent 3:57 of the power play threatening, and Duchene even hit a post with about ten seconds to go. But you may have noticed that 3:57 is not quite 4:00. Mikael Granlund also noticed that.

With Hellebuyck whacking his stick on the ice to signal the impending end of the power play, Miro Heiskanen got the puck at the point, faked a shot, and slid it over to Mikael Granlund, who had twice proven he knew how to beat Connor Hellebuyck.

Hellebuyck slid over and shrugged, but he was on his knees, and the puck was already over his shoulders for a playoff hat trick for Granlund.

It was 3-1 Dallas, and the hats immediately began to rain down onto the ice as Granlund pumped his fists from his knees, where he’d wound up after his shot.

It was A Moment, absolutely. There have already been so many of them in only 11 playoff games so far, but man, this one was absolutely one of them.

To top it all off, at the next TV timeout, none other than Anton Khudobin showed up with Jeff K to rev up the building even further with his trademark phrase: “We’re not going home!” The building responded as loudly as you would expect for a such a moment, and man, you have to imagine the Jets were starting to feel dread creeping in at that moment.

Oettinger made a couple more outstanding pad saves shortly afterward. He was just fantastic in this game up to that point, outside of, you know, the one bad goal. But Oettinger’s ability to shake off moments like that was in full display down the stretch in this one, while Hellebuyck looked poised to suffer his second loss of the series as a result of giving up three goals to a single Finnish forward.

After another great chance by the top line when Hintz deflected a great pass right into Hellebuyck’s glove, Jamie Benn game flying into the pile, and he earned every bit of the two-minute roughing penalty on Mark Scheifele he was subsequently called for.

It was a galvanizing moment, in the moment. But loading up Winnipeg’s power play with a minor after the whistle was probably not Oettinger’s preferred method of spending the final five minutes of the game.

But Dallas’s PK did what it has done for seemingly the entire season: bowing up in the big moments. And after some exceptionally hard work by Hintz and Johnston up the ice, the penalty ended with Oettinger swallowing up a shot from the slot with 2:51 to go.

That’s when Hellebuyck left the net, which surprised me in its lateness. I thought Winnipeg might have been better off going 6-on-4 during the power play, but I suppose you have to trust your league-best power play at some point to get a big goal. And given how aggressively the Stars killed the penalty, maybe it was the right call, as the empty night would likely have been filled before its end.

But all told, it didn’t end up mattering. The Stars held a third period lead to win a playoff game in what, for them, is becoming standard playoff fashion: one player scores three, and Jake Oettinger does the rest.

This time, he got a little more help than he’s had in three and a half months. It didn’t come a moment too soon.