Postgame Beats: Heart and Soul, Flesh and Bone

This game asked everything of you, and of its players. And they gave even more than that, somehow.

Just in case you didn’t hear the news, Mark Scheifele’s father passed away last night. After Scheifele spoke with his family this morning, head coach Scott Arniel informed the media that Scheifele still decided to play tonight, as that’s what his father would have wanted him to do. Arniel missed morning skate in order to be with Scheifele at the team hotel.

In response, many Stars fans have been donating to charities that Scheifele supports. If that’s something you’re interested in doing, you can read more about that here.

Scheifele was incredible tonight, and even moreso when you consider the impossibly tough situation he was in. But for him to play the way he did, and to see his teammates supporting him the way they did was something I won’t forget for a long, long time.

This game was much, much bigger than just a game. And it was a Game 6, so it was never going to be “just” a game to begin with.

But man. Some things are best not put into words, and I think this situation is one of them. You could see the raw emotion everywhere tonight, and most especially in the misty eyes after the game. But Scheifele, in the hardest possible place, wanted to be there for his team, and he was. And they were there for him.

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As for the much less important things, there was a hockey game tonight.

I’m going to write more about it tomorrow. You can read the beat-by-beat points below.

For now, I’ll just say that this was a tight-checking game, the tightest of the series so far. It was the most playoff-feeling game perhaps of the entire postseason for Dallas, and Jake Oettinger had to make the saves that go along with that sort of contest.

But for once, Connor Hellebuyck matched him, even though it was a road game. Hellebuyck was fantastic, and he even robbed Rantanen of the sort of goal Rantanen was scoring last round in these situations. That’s a tall hill to climb, but Hellebuyck was carrying people on his back at times in this one, and that’s the sort of goalie he can be, when he’s on. And he was on.

And yet, Dallas was better.

For Sam Steel to score the goal he did, and to draw the penalty he did, is special. Thomas Harley didn’t answer a lot of questions with a ton of detail tonight, but he clearly couldn’t say enough about all the little things Steel does and did, and how much he deserved the glory for scoring the goal that gave Dallas a chance to win the game in the first place.

As for Harley, he just did what he did without Miro Heiskanen for half the season and most of the playoffs, so far: step up in a big moment. And what a step it was.

Dallas will play Edmonton, again, in the third round of the playoffs. The Western Conference Finals start on Wednesday night in Dallas.

It will not be easy, but that’s kind of the point.

Lineups

The Stars began the game with the same 11/7 lineup:

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

Lindell-Ceci
Harley-Heiskanen
Bichsel-Petrovic
Lyubushkin

Oettinger in goal

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The Jets began the game with this lineup:

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

Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Fleury-Schenn

Hellebuyck

First Period

Mark Scheifele was in the starting lineup for Scott Arniel, which seemed a smart move. Get the nerves (and many other emotions) worked out as early as possible, I suppose.

Dallas had the better of the first five minutes, with Evgenii Dadonov’s wrap-around chance being the best of a handful of Grade B+ chances. But without Sam Girard’s skate there to bank it in, the chance slid into Hellebuyck with doing any damage, just before Steel arrived to crash the crease.

Ilya Lyubushkin made a nice defensive play to avoid a 2-on-1 pass across the crease, and Oettinger didn’t have to make a save until over eight minutes into the first period.

Dallas then got a couple of Grade-As that they also put wide of open nets, much to the dismay of the assembled fans. First, Dadonov one-timed a slick Jason Robertson pass from behind the net just wide, where it actually hit Johnston at the side of the net.

Then Seguin traversed the net and found a lot of space that Hellebuyck had not tracked, only to send a backhand past a kneeling Luke Schenn and just wide of a gaping net.

Oettinger then had to make a really nice positional save on Cole Perfetti after Pionk wound up for a slapshot and sent a pass down low. But Oettinger didn’t sell out completely for the shot, and he was there to cover the near post with relative ease.

Dallas got a host of great chances in tight on Hellebuyck with three minutes to play, as the Benn-Duchene-Seguin line combined with Bichsel and Heiskanen for a trio of tests against Hellebuyck’s chest.

Seguin tipped a pass at the top of the crease. Bichsel took a puck down low with space and tried to roof a backhand. Heiskanen tried a similar shelf move in tight, with the crowd going nuts.

Even Rantanen got onto the ice as the Stars outchanged the Jets, and he tried a between-the-legs move that just barely rolled off his stick before he could fire it. The Stars were buzzing, but despite spending over a minute in the Jets’ zone with heavy pressure, nothing came of it, and the period would end nil-nil.

Dallas had out-shot Winnipeg 6-3, but they missed the net on their best looks.

Second Period

The tight, defensive play looked crisper for both sides to start the second. You began to wonder if this game was destined to be a 2-1 sort of affair, or at least if it would need to be broken open somehow to get the offense going for either side.

Broken was the word du jour, however, as Dadonov and Steel failed to hand the puck off properly on a rush at the far blue line, and the Jets grabbed the turnover and sent in Nikolaj Ehlers with a breakaway. Oettinger made the save, but Dallas wasn’t able to regain their composure, and the Jets drew a delayed penalty later in the sequence, after which another puck got sent at Oettinger by Kyle Connor.

Oettinger made the pad save, but the puck sat cleanly for Mark Scheifele, who of course got the game’s first goal with no one there to help the goaltender. Oettinger pushed across to cover the open far post, and Scheifele tucked it back through his five-hole for a goal that meant a lot more than just one point.

Dallas was rattled in the aftermath of the chance, and Connor hit the outside of the post after another couple of dangerous looks that Oettinger had to deal with. Shots quickly ballooned to 12-7 for Winnipeg, and you really began to hear all of those things about how Winnipeg plays so much better with the lead echoing in your head. Or maybe that was just me.

Marchment then did his best to shift the momentum by laying a good hit on Ehlers in the high slot just as Ehlers released a shot from distance.

Marchment did some barking at the Jets after the hit, and you could see him trying to fire up his team after they had begun to sag.

Marchment then took a return hit from Ehlers in a bit of turnabout, but it had the same effect, which is to say a positive one for Dallas. Thomas Harley waited for a streaking Dadonov to occupy Hellebuyck’s vision, and a rebound was generated. Sam Steel stepped right up to the puck and ripped it over the glove and under the bar to make it 1-1.

Hellebuyck didn’t look like he picked up the puck perfectly off Steel’s stick, but it was a great shot either way, and the game was tied.

That said, the Jets didn’t seem to lose any momentum despite losing their lead. The Stars spent more time in their zone ducking and covering, and Dallas began to look like a team hoping for the second intermission to arrive.

Then, things turned. Josh Morrissey got tangled up with Rantanen in the corner with about five minutes to go, and by “tangled up” I mean “knocked over Rantanen and swung his leg into the back of Rantanen’s leg.”

There are worse terms for that sort of play, but Morrissey ended up getting the worst of it, as he went down the tunnel gingerly with a sore left knee after Rantanen appeared to land on it and put Morrissey in some pain. He would not return, and Scott Arniel sat after the game that it was not good news, leaving the Jets in a big hole with the biggest part of the game still to be played.

Mason Marchment looked for a call on a 1-on-2 rush shortly after, but despite getting brought down as he tried to jump past a couple of guys to follow the puck no call was made, on account of Mason Marchment.

Dallas then got a couple of great looks from Benn and Seguin, which were high-quality enough to cause Seguin to slam the gate and smash a stick on the bench after the shift. Granlund also banged a rebound into Hellebuyck’s right pad from a scramble at the net, but nothing doin’.

Oettinger then had to make his best save of the game to that point when Scheifele made a beautiful pass to Kyle Connor, who stepped up to the wide-open porch and ripped a shot high blocker that Oettinger smartly rebuffed.

Dallas had one last look at the end of the second period after a face-off from a very silly goose of an icing by Winnipeg with three seconds to play. Seguin stepped in to help win the draw back to Heiskanen, and his shot was ripped just over the net with Hellebuyck not appearing to have seen it.

The third period would decide the game, or the series.

Third Period

Hellebuyck opened the third by making perhaps his best save of the game, stretching out a toe to rob Rantanen all alone at the net front.

After Oettinger made a stop in his own end to send a Cole Perfetti shot from a great spot just over the net, the Duchene line got another flurry. Seguin had two looks at the end of a very long shift, and Duchene also tried a turnaround bid himself. The crowd couldn’t believe none of the chances went in, but Hellebuyck wasn’t giving anything for free, or even at a discount.

Scheifele then nearly scored an incredible goal after fighting through multiple stick checks down the ice until he slipped a shot just wide of Oettinger’s skate as well as the far post.

Winnipeg’s top line broke in and caught Dallas in between, and Connor found Mason Appleton all alone with a great tic-tac-to pass, it looked for a second like the game was 2-1 for Winnipeg. But Jake Oettinger dove across, and somehow, the puck stayed out.

Appleton shot it back into Oettinger a fair bit, but the goal still had to make the glorious save, and the game was preserved.

Dallas then had its just-about chance from a long shot through traffic, when Evgenii Dadonov nailed the high post behind Hellebuyck’s blocker hand from the far end of the circle.

The game ticked down to six minutes to play in a 1-1 time, and the marbles all began to appear on the table. The only penalty call of the game had been a delayed call on the Jets’ goal, and you could see that the game was sitting on the edge of a knife. Or at least, I could see that, metaphorically.

Rantanen then got going in the offensive zone after Evgenii Dadonov tried another wraparound. Then Rantanen got a great pass on the weak side and Hellebuyck got pulled off his post, and the Stars tried to solve him. But it didn’t matter, as Hellebuyck made a couple of incredible saves, one of which he knew about.

Then, there was the moment that seemed so dramatic as to be scripted. With 20 seconds to go, Scheifele wheeled up to the top of the Stars’ zone and put a shot into Steel’s pads. The puck into open ice, and Steel raced Scheifele to the puck. He would win the race.

Scheifele would bring Steel down right at the far blue line, and a penalty was called. But Dan O’Rourke didn’t deign to award a penalty shot, and the Stars had a two-minute penalty with 15 seconds left in regulation.

The Stars wouldn’t test Hellebuyck in those 15 seconds, and we headed to overtime, with Dallas having a chance to do in overtime what Colorado couldn’t.

Oh, and by the way, I’l just leave this here, from Scouting the Refs:

From Rule 57.3:

When a player, in the neutral or attacking zone, in control of the puck (or who could have obtained possession and control of the puck) and having no other opponent to pass than the goalkeeper, is tripped or otherwise fouled from behind, thus preventing a reasonable scoring opportunity, a penalty shot shall be awarded to the non-offending team.

Overtime

Mikko Rantanen ripped a one-timer right off Hellebuyck’s mask in the first minute of the power play, but with 30 seconds to go in the advantage, Miro Heiskanen went back to his own zone to collect a cleared puck. He handed it off to Harley for the remaining couple dozen seconds of the power play and headed off the ice.

Harley carried it in and fed to Marchment, who sent it along the wall. Granlund and Marchment poked it down along the wall, where Seguin collected it. And Seguin saw Harley, wide-open, creeping down into the slot.

Seguin dished the puck out to Harley, who wound up just a little, just enough to make sure the puck would go the right direction.

It did.

Hellebuyck had just peeked over his defenseman’s shoulder before moving back to his left. But Harley shot it back to Hellebuyck’s right.

So, Thomas Harley scored, and he jumped. He jumped very, very high.

But on the other end of the spectrum, Mark Scheifele sat in the penalty box alone. But he wouldn’t be alone for long.

His teammates went in and got him and brought him out onto the ice, where they each hugged him in turn. And these hugs were full of meaning.

Scheifele had chosen to be there for his team, and he played lights-out hockey until the very, very end of the game, scoring the only goal his team could find.

And when the game finally ended, Scheifele’s team was there for him, too.

So the handshake line started, and even then, Jamie Benn made sure to set an example for his team of how they would show Scheifele that, in the midst of their own great joy, they knew every bit of the suffering he was going through. And they were there for him, too.

It was a hard game, in many ways. But it was unforgettable in the best ways, the hardest ways, and the ineffable ways.

Sometimes hockey is a lot more than the sum of its parts.