Roope Hintz on Friday got Dallas going early, while Jake Oettinger stonewalled his home-state team again as the Stars eliminated the Minnesota Wild 4-1 in Game 6 of their first-round NHL playoff series.
Oettinger had the privilege of playing in front of his family and the thrill of backstopping the Stars to a clinching win in his native Minnesota.
Ryan Suter had the satisfaction of beating his former team, who bought out his contract two years ago.
Photo: AP
The Stars had all kinds of reasons to cherish this victory, including a little extra rest.
“I think the guys knew how important it was for both of us and everyone really stepped up and competed hard for us,” Suter said.
Wyatt Johnston and Mason Marchment scored in the second period, when a burst by the Stars — swooping in for the finish — outshot the Wild 18-5.
Max Domi had an empty-netter in the final minute.
Oettinger made 22 saves for the Stars, who advanced to face the winner of the Colorado Avalanche-Seattle Kraken series.
The Avalanche earlier beat the Kraken to force a deciding Game 7.
Oettinger was bidding for his second shutout of the series before Freddy Gaudreau scored for the Wild with 7 minutes, 7 seconds remaining.
“He’s our brick wall back there and we trust him. Any time we make mistakes, he’s there for us,” Marchment said. “We wouldn’t be here without him.”
Filip Gustavsson, starting a fourth consecutive game for the first time in his first season with Minnesota, stopped 23 shots in two periods.
Marc-Andre Fleury took over in the third period.
With center Joe Pavelski expected back for the next round after missing the past five games with a concussion, the Stars are poised to make another push for the Stanley Cup Finals they reached in 2020.
In Sunrise, Florida, Matthew Tkachuk scored the first of three unanswered goals as the Panthers erased a third-period deficit and downed the visiting Boston Bruins 7-5 in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference series.
Florida leveled the best-of-seven series against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins at three wins apiece.
Boston’s Tyler Bertuzzi and David Pastrnak each scored their second goal of the game to give the Bruins a 4-3 lead by the 3 minute, 53 second mark of the third period.
Florida then scored four of the next five goals.
In Elmont, New York, Paul Stastny scored six minutes into overtime as the Carolina Hurricanes advanced to the Eastern Conference semi-finals with a 2-1 overtime win over the New York Islanders.
Stastny sent an angled shot from the goal line past Ilya Sorokin as the Hurricanes won the first-round series 4-2 and face the winner of the New Jersey Devils-New York Rangers series in the second round.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
BELGIANS ADVANCE: Club Brugge gave Atalanta a lesson in efficiency, as Gian Piero Gasperini’s team had 29 efforts at goal, compared with seven from the visitors Seldom has a player’s sending off had such an influence on a game. AC Milan was to left rue Theo Hernandez’s second yellow card — for diving — as Feyenoord advanced to the UEFA Champions League last 16 at the former European champion’s expense with a 1-1 draw in the second leg of their playoff on Tuesday, giving the Dutch team a 2-1 win on aggregate. Bayern Munich, Club Brugge and Benfica also won their playoffs, eliminating Celtic, UEFA Europa League winner Atalanta BC and French team AS Monaco respectively. “In soccer everything changes in a second,” said Milan forward
The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) is considering reducing its pitch clock by two seconds to help players better adjust to the rules applied at the World Baseball Classic (WBC). The proposal aims to shorten the pitch timer from 25 seconds to 23 seconds with the bases empty, and from 20 seconds to 18 seconds with runners on base. Currently, the WBC mandates that pitchers deliver a pitch every 18 seconds with the bases empty and 15 seconds with runners on base. The issue was raised during a pre-season CPBL managers’ meeting on Tuesday by Rakuten Monkeys bench and batting
Starting with three fights in the first nine seconds and ending with a celebration and a spot in the 4 Nations Face-Off final, the US on Saturday delivered exactly what Matthew Tkachuk hoped for by beating Canada. “We needed to send a message,” Tkachuk said. “The message we wanted to send is ‘It’s our time.’” Tkachuk fought Brandon Hagel off the opening faceoff, brother Brady tussled with Sam Bennett the next time the puck dropped, J.T. Miller dropped the gloves with Colton Parayko next and the Americans followed those fisticuffs with a 3-1 victory over their biggest rival. “That was one of the
RSS