The Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken are set to meet for the second time in three days on Monday in Seattle, after their first meeting was eventful for both.
Dallas clinched a playoff berth, and the Kraken were officially eliminated from the postseason in a 5-1 win by the visiting Stars on Saturday.
The Stars (48-21-4, 100 points) have qualified for the postseason the past four seasons, reaching the Western Conference finals the past two years.
“I never take making the playoffs for granted,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “It’s a really hard league just to get one of those 16 spots. You always enjoy that, and you never take it for granted, because there’s a lot of work that goes into that.”
The Stars have won five in a row overall to move within four points of the Winnipeg Jets for first place in the Central Division. Dallas has nine games left to try to catch the Jets, who they host on April 10.
“You work all year (to make the playoffs), now we’re focused on winning the division,” Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger said.
Mikko Rantanen continues to settle in nicely with the Stars since his acquisition on March 7 from the Carolina Hurricanes. He had a goal and two assists in the win against the Kraken to give him four goals and seven assists in 11 games with Dallas.
“I thought Rantanen was outstanding, our best player by far,” DeBoer said. “That line is starting to get some chemistry, it looked dangerous. Wyatt Johnston had another big goal, making it look easy.”
The Stars lost four of six following the acquisition of Rantanen, but they seem to have found chemistry in the past five games.
“Our game is building. It’s not perfect yet, but a lot of good things done (against Seattle),” DeBoer said. “We’re still taking too many penalties for me, so we’ve got to clean that up, but I thought we had some really good individual performances.”
Oettinger has won his past five starts and can match his season-high win streak with another victory against the Kraken.
“He’s our backbone back there,” Dallas forward Mason Marchment said of Oettinger. “We all have so much confidence in him, and he’s not just our goalie, he’s a leader on our team, so when he’s standing on his head and he’s making those big saves, it really fires us up.”
The Kraken (31-37-6, 68 points) have lost four of five following their most recent defeat against the Stars.
Seattle went 0 for 4 on the power play and 3 for 5 on the penalty kill against Dallas, which Kraken coach Dan Bylsma called the story of the game.
“It didn’t necessarily have the feel of a 5-1 game,” Bylsma said. “It’s uncharacteristic of our group to take a lot of penalties. It’s a huge part of the game, especially against good power plays. The best way to keep them up on the score sheet is not to give them the opportunity. I don’t think we’ve been taking an exorbitant number of penalties lately … maybe the timeliness and the undisciplined penalties have been the hurting factor.”
–Field Level Media
