CALGARY, Alberta — The Stars — held together by hopes, wishes and Jake Oettinger — finally succumbed.
In a 3-2 overtime loss in Game 7 against the Flames, the Stars clutched onto Oettinger’s cape as he tried to drag Dallas into the second round. He was the reason the Stars even reached Game 7 against the Flames, and he was going to be the only route three hours north toward a matchup with Edmonton.
But the Stars offered him little help.
Johnny Gaudreau scored the game-winning goal with 4:51 left in overtime, lifting the Flames past the troublesome Oettinger and ushering in summer in Dallas.
Oettinger finished the game with 64 saves, including 24 in the second period, four during an overtime power play and game-saving ones against Calgary’s fourth line in OT. He shut down odd-man rushes and held firm on net-front scrambles. He made massive saves on Gaudreau repeatedly, before Gaudreau beat him to win the series.
Tyler Toffoli and Matthew Tkachuk each scored their first goals of the series for Calgary. Jamie Benn gave the Stars a 1-0 lead 40 seconds into the game. Vladislav Namestnikov scored 31 seconds after Toffoli’s goal to give the Stars a 2-1 lead in the second period.
The Stars ended their season in the first round for the first time since 2014.
Dallas limped into Game 7 against the Flames. Luke Glendening missed his first game as a Star due to a lower-body injury. Roope Hintz was a late scratch after warmup because of an upper-body injury. Radek Faksa did not play after the second period after suffering an upper-body injury.
Its lineup was littered with playoff newcomers (Jacob Peterson, Marian Studenic and Ty Dellandrea) and lacked any punch to replace Hintz and his 37 regular-season goals. Throughout the season, the Stars rode their top line and little else. On Sunday, a third of it was missing.
Entering Game 7, the Flames were the better team in five of the six games in the series. At 5-on-5, they had more shot attempts and expected goals, according to Natural Stat Trick, in each of the first six games. The Stars outshot Calgary in Game 6 to pull out a win and even the series, but there was little question which team performed better in the past fortnight.
After Benn’s goal, the Flames had 13 of the game’s next 14 shots. They had 26 of the game’s 30 shots in the second period. At the start of the third period, a third Flames goal felt like an inevitability.
Then Gaudreau delivered, after the Stars played an even third period.
Gaudreau’s shot bounced off Oettinger after Oettinger made an initial save off his mask.
The Flames were the team with burdens stapled to their backs.
They had the postseason expectations of a division champion. They’d just completed the franchise’s best season since Calgary won the Cup in 1989. They were trying to notch just their second (non-play-in round) series win since a Cup Final run in 2004, when they also managed their last Game 7 victory.
Their fans embody the thirst, the desperation for postseason success. One fan at the bar behind the net wore a jersey that was embroidered “It Was In” on the back above “04,” a callback to the Flames’ controversial finish 18 years ago against Tampa Bay. The team’s watch party in the Saddledome parking lot ran out of free tickets within five minutes on Sunday morning.
The Stars had none of that weight.
Dallas backed into the playoffs with a negative goal differential and a record in regulation that snuck over .500 on the final day of the season. Its preseason expectations that it failed to meet had tempered. The Stars were the underdog spoiler playing to deny the league a Battle of Alberta in the second round.
The Stars had won their last Game 7, two years ago against Colorado. They’d racked up four series wins in the last four years, and advanced past the first round in each of their last three postseason appearances. History didn’t threaten the Stars.
“None of you people thought we’d be here in Game 7,” Stars coach Rick Bowness said before the game. “Not too many people gave us a chance in this series at all, which doesn’t matter to us because that’s all just noise.
“We believed we had a chance to beat them, and that’s why we’re here. We worked very hard to get here, and we believe we have a great chance to win this game tonight and move on.”
The Stars finish 2021-22 as a team that underperformed relative to their preseason expectations and overperformed relative to their postseason expectations.
Before the season, a first-round exit would be viewed unfavorably — and it still is, given the Stars have consistently spent to the salary cap. They were supposed to be healthy again, recipients of returns from injury by Tyler Seguin, Alexander Radulov and Ben Bishop. But Seguin was inconsistent, Radulov was a shell of the top-line player he was, and Bishop’s career ended.
The result was an underwhelming regular season buoyed by overtime wins and dominated by Jason Robertson, Joe Pavelski and Hintz.
Now, they enter the offseason as a team with questions. Who is the coach in the fall? How do they replace John Klingberg if he leaves in free agency? What additions can they make after signing Oettinger and Robertson to large extensions?
Perhaps they won’t be held together by hopes, wishes and Jake Oettinger the next time they take the ice.
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