Postgame Beats: "Oetter's Better" Says AAC Crowd, Scoreboard

Plus: a very curious rules debate

Dallas stole home-ice advantage with a 5-2 victory on Sunday afternoon. But you only get to keep what you’ve stolen if you put it away when you get back home.

Dallas got another three-point night from Mikko Rantanen, and they continued to make Connor Hellebuyck look like the real USA backup in his fourth road game disaster of the playoffs, putting up five goals on the Hart Trophy nominee.

It was a much closer game than the score indicated, but a win is a win. The Stars have a chance on Tuesday to take a stranglehold on this series on home ice, or to let their advantage slip away with two of the final three games (if necessary) in Winnipeg.

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The Stars began the game with this lineup, as Pete DeBoer brought Colin Blackwell in for Oskar Bäck.

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

Lindell-Ceci
Harley-Lyubushkin
Bichsel-Petrovic

Oettinger in goal.

The Jets, meanwhile, rolled out this group:

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

Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Fleury-Miller

Hellebuyck

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Nino Niederreiter decided to copy Tyler Seguin by taking an immediate high-sticking penalty, giving Dallas a power play in the first minute of the game.

But those early power play opportunities are tough when they’re only one minor, and the Stars didn’t get a puck on Hellebuyck during the set. But Rantanen did draw another penalty with five seconds to go, and that meant the Stars had an opportunity to emulate Winnipeg in Game 2 by scoring a goal on their second two-minute power play of the game—and they did.

After winning the face-off, Harley got the puck over to Rantanen, and he found Hintz open for a high tip that Hellebuyck never picked up, with Neal Pionk obstructing his vision.

The puck wafted in past Hellebuyck’s blocker, and the Stars had the first goal of the game for just the second time in the playoffs.

But as you’d expect, the next power play went to Winnipeg, after Lyubushkin had to wait to handle a puck to avoid a too many men on the ice penalty. When he finally played it, he was under pressure from Nikolaj Ehlers, and the puck got turned over and Lyubushkin got caught reaching. Two minutes for slashing.

Oettinger had to make one great stop on a one-timer against the grain by Perfetti, but he stayed tall coming across, and Harley cleared out the rebound quickly, otherwise, the Jets threatened but couldn’t get more extended zone time, and the Stars’ PK had its first kill of the day.

The Duchene line then got a couple of glorious looks at pucks sitting right in front of Hellebuyck, but his preternatural pads sealed the ice. Boy, does that line ever need one.

And then disaster struck after Cody Ceci committed a pretty unnecessary icing play. Winnipeg’s top line came out, and after Oettinger made a couple of tough saves through traffic, Kyle Connor got a rebound and wrapped it around the back of the net just before Oettinger could lunge across with his glove. There wasn’t much space to hit, but Connor scores lots of goals, and he showed why. Tie game.

You can see Lindell’s stick involved with Oettinger’s glove here, but my read after watching a couple of replays is that Oettinger’s glove rebounds up an inch or two off the ice after it hits the post, and that’s the bigger factor in opening that sliver of ice. I mean, it’s a desperation play Oettinger makes because a standard push across with the pad wouldn’t have gotten there. Great play by Connor, who was as quick as anyone I’ve seen with the wrap.

After a good look by the Duchene line that culminated in a big slapshot from a tough angle by Ceci, the Stars had another penalty to kill when Benn got nailed for holding the stick in the neutral zone.

Again, the Jets forced Oettinger to make one really nice save (on Connor), and another near tap-in was foiled at the last second by a heroic Johnston stick-check at the back post.

As they’ve often done, the Stars would build off the kill, and Mikael Granlund took the puck down low into the offensive zone as it expired, and drew a tripping call behind the net.

But Granlund didn’t turn over the puck after drawing the call, and from his knees, he dished a pass out front. The Jets seemed to stop for a split second, which opened up ice for Thomas Harley. He caught Granlund’s pass in the slot (thankfully, as it would otherwise have traveled toward the net Oettinger was vacating on the delayed call), and he ripped it past Hellebuyck’s glove.

Mason Appleton had a scary moment when he took a wrister from his own team to the side of the head, and Lian Bichsel immediately waved for help. Appleton was able to skate off under his own power, but I can’t imagine it felt terribly great.

The period ended 2-1 after both teams have some forays that looked threatening, and the game looked all but certain to see more goals before it was all said and done.

Second Period

Nino Niederreiter got a Grade-A chance off a 3-on-2 less than a minute into the game, but he ripped it high and wide to let Dallas off the hook. It was a needless chance allowed after the Duchene line got caught behind the play, but Dallas got a break.

Dadonov nearly got a break as well, when Alex Petrovic led a rush into the zone and went to the net, but Dadonov’s effort to sneak a shot into the far side couldn’t quite get over Hellebuyck’s pad.

Things were cagey in the second period, with the Stars coming out a bit less aggressively than they looked in the first period. But the looks did come, including a puck that ticked into the slot for Granlund, who wound up and fired a cannon past the net on the gift of a chance. Duchene led another 3-on-2 rush that resulted in a shot on goal, but it felt like meat was left on the bone.

The Jets’ third line then tied things up with a great shift that caught the fourth line all out of sorts, and Josh Morrissey sent Colin Blackwell the wrong way before stepping up, drawing Thomas Harley up to the slot, and finding Nino Niederreiter wide open in the low circle with a pass that beat three Stars skaters.

It was a killer pass, resulting in an easy putaway that Oettinger had no prayer on catching up to. Tie game, again. And the Jets continued pressing from there, including a dangerous Gabriel Vilardi backhand after Connor beat three Stars in a puck battle behind the net.

Dallas got two more chances to regain the lead later in the second.

First, Mason Marchment then attempted to replicate his fabulous one-on-one goal against Hellebuyck from early in the regular season, but after going between his legs and attempting a backhand-forehand shot before being brought down, the shot ticked off a stick, and nothing came of it. Marchment slammed his stick into the end boards after seeing no penalty call, but it didn’t convince the officials to change their minds.

Next, Jamie Benn did some good work low int he zone to set up Cody Ceci for a one-timer, but Ceci took just a half-second to collect the pass before firing, and Hellebuyck’s glove was ready and waiting for it.

Mikko Rantanen then nearly got a chance for himself off the rush, only for Dylan DeMelo to skate away from him with position, and Rantanen reached with his stick and ended up getting it between DeMelo’s legs for a tripping call.

Again, Oettinger had to make a save on the kill, but the Stars looked pretty sound overall, and they got Rantanen back without any damage being done. Man, those penalties are just tempting fate. Their power play has been so consistent in the playoffs, but man, do they ever tempt fate with the penalties they’ve been taking.

Dallas nearly got a lead again after the top line found a couple of rebounds atop the crease, but Hellebuyck was well-positioned to keep things tied, and he did.

The biggest talking point after the second period was twofold: the uncalled Mark Scheifele cross check into the ribs of Mason Marchment that sent him to the ice in apparent agony…

…and the irate Marchment’s screaming and, uh, stick-tap to the shins of referee Graham Skilliter, the closest official.

Given the no-call on Marchment’s breakaway chance and the painful cheap shot to the ribs away from the play, you can understand Marchment’s frustration. But man, losing control to that degree is a dangerous thing indeed, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Marchment ends up paying the price for that decision.

After the game, DeBoer said he saw the play, but didn’t know what sort of a tap on the shinpads it was.

“I saw the interaction. I saw him give him a tap on the shinpads,” DeBoer said. “I don’t know the context of what happened. You know, is it a friendly tap? Was it just acknowledging that he was there? I don’t know.”

Third Period

On the first shift of the period, Dadonov took Robertson’s spot next to Johnston and Benn, while the fourth line featured Robertson, Steel, and Rantanen double-shifting.

Winnipeg also got some looks, with Oettinger having to come out to flash a big blocker save at one point, and with Johnston clearing another rebound out of the slot after a shot through traffic in the first minute of the period. It was a tense, dicey period that felt like it was going to the team with the first break.

And the Stars appeared to have gotten it, when Rantanen fired a shot that bounced to Petrovic low along the goal line, and Petrovic kicked it toward the net, where it bounced in. Watch it yourself.

Or, did he kick it? Did he just “angle” it off his skates? And how did it bounce in after that? These were the questions that we all got to ponder in the ensuing seven-minute review (estimated), during which the game presentation crew played “Freebird” while the video board played everything from DVD logo-bouncing screensavers to the which the officials finally announced, to an absolutely silent crowd waiting on his every word, that the goal stood because Hellebuyck put it into his own net.

Indeed, Hellebuyck swiped at it, and the puck—which was traveling away from the goal mouth as it bore down on him—bounced off the toe of his goal stick and fluttered past him, into the net.

I’m still fuzzy on why exactly the goal stood, and Scouting the Refs was a little confused, too.

After the game Scott Arniel wasn’t pleased with the explanation.

As for Pete DeBoer, he simply said that the officials had explained that Hellebuyck “propelled” the puck into the net, which I took to mean the officials interpreted Hellebuyck’s actions as not a save attempt (which would still mean the puck was being kicked in), but rather a separate action altogether.

You can see, I think, why Winnipeg may not have been (or why they will not be) happy with that call.

In any case, Hellebuyck lay in the crease on his back with pure despondency after the goal—I think he knew how it was going to end, given how these playoffs have gone for him—and the Stars kept the pedal down right afterward, with Johnston narrowly missing a back-post tap-in off the rush.

Alex Petrovic, by the way, was mobbed by his teammates after the goal. Make no mistake: they know what this journey has been like for him, and they couldn’t be happier for him.

But Mikko Rantanen doesn’t miss when he gets chances like the one he got shortly after that:

Rantanen basically traversed the slot until he found that space high, and he hit it squarely to make it 4-2, sending the crowd into ecstasy, and prompting a timeout from Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel.

It was an effective timeout, and Winnipeg looked much better after the breather. But Oettinger didn’t give them anything more, prompting “Oetter’s Better” chants that evoked (intentionally, I’m sure) the “Eddie’s Better” chants from 25 years ago in Reunion Arena. It was a pretty cool response to the “US Backup” chants Winnipeg fans had been serenading Oettinger with, and the historical links to the Belfour chant gave it that extra bit of panache.

Dallas finally put the game on ice when Evgenii Dadonov (moved up to the third line, remember) got a puck at the far blue line and came in with Benn on a 2-on-1. He fed Benn a saucer pass that Benn fired and Hellebuyck saved, but the rebound came to Benn, and he found Wyatt Johnston back in the middle of the slot.

Johnston’s first shot actually went off (I think) Morgan Barron and Hellebuyck, and he had to shoot the puck once more to actually put it in. But rebounds are allowed in this league, and that is probably a good example of the type of goals Dallas has talked about scoring on Hellebuyck for much of the season, let alone the series.

From there, it was a prolonged celebration full of more chanting at Hellebuyck and some “mixing it up” that didn’t appear to do any harm.

Wyatt Johnston got tagged for a late penalty after some jostling in the corner, but the Stars’ PK pitched a shutout today despite the third straight game of giving up two more power plays than they earned.

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Hellebuyck is mortal in road games. That’s the truth of the matter, whether it’s a cosmic accident or something in Hellebuyck’s head or whatever. So if the Stars can capitalize on that twice in the next three games, they won’t have to worry about the fact that Game 7 is in Winnipeg. Because they won’t ever have to play in it.