Despite Jake Oettinger’s best efforts, Stars’ season ends in Game 7 loss to Flames

CALGARY — Not much separates the thrill of victory from the agony of defeat in a Game 7 of a playoff series. At 10:58 p.m. Sunday night in Calgary, that distance was no more than a few feet.

Along the boards of the south end of the Scotiabank Saddledome, every Flames player raced to swarm Johnny Gaudreau, who had just sent the Flames to the second round with a game-winning goal in overtime of Game 7. Just a short distance over inside the crease of the home side’s net was Jake Oettinger in a perpetual state of disbelief.

“I honestly haven’t seen a better performance from a goalie,” John Klingberg said. “He should be very proud of himself.”

Oettinger put forth a valiant 64-save masterpiece, capping off a series in which he put forth one of the best goaltending performances in franchise and NHL playoff history. If the visions of Oettinger turning down shot after shot in the 75 minutes of Game 7 weren’t telling enough, the postgame scene spoke volumes.

For over two minutes, each player took his turn to individually embrace Oettinger. At one point, Oettinger let his head drop on the left shoulder of his backup, Scott Wedgewood. Shortly after that, there was an eight-second hug with Stars captain Jamie Benn, who looked to be filling Oettinger’s ears with encouragement.

“I told him he did a heck of a job,” Benn said. “He’s a phenomenal young goalie… He played a hell of a game. Haven’t seen too many like that. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have even been close to overtime, having a chance to win.

“He’s going to be great for this organization for a long time.”

After the Stars players finished embracing Oettinger, the teams lined up for handshakes. Oettinger, visibly, got the most animated and respectful responses from Flames players throughout, with most of them shaking his hand, offering some words and pounding his chest.

On the night of a season-ending loss, the pain supersedes the silver linings. For the past eight months, the Stars have known nothing other than game planning and preparing for the next opponent. Every great performance was a stepping stone to the next great performance. Every defeat was a low moment that could be filed away quickly with a good performance a day or two later. In the playoffs, everything amps up to another level, from the preparation to the intensity.

Suddenly, one shot from a tough angle leaks through and everything comes to a screeching halt. For a while, the only thing taking up space is the feeling of emptiness. That’s the feeling the Stars dealt with Sunday night. The itinerary that was supposed to sketch out the plan for this week in Edmonton is replaced with exit meetings. The hope of lifting the Stanley Cup can only come next season.

• The playoffs are a different beast from the regular season. At 23 years old, Oettinger made his postseason debut less than two weeks ago in Game 1 against the Flames. The Stars liked what they saw from him in his rookie season and then loved what they saw from him this past season but playoffs are just a different beast. There was no way to know what Oettinger would be like in this environment without experiencing it.

“We didn’t know what to expect coming in,” head coach Rick Bowness said. “You’ve got to see how he’s going to handle it. Until you put a player in that position — here’s the ball, it’s the playoffs, first time, you don’t know. You have confidence that he’s a strong kid and a character kid and a great goalie and a great person but you don’t know how they’re going to react.”

After a full series, what are the test results on Oettinger?

“You watch him from game to game, he was enjoying the moment,” Bowness said. “Elite athletes, they want to be out there when the game is on the line. They want to the ball. Jake wants the ball. He’s elite, mentally. I’ve always admired elite athletes and their mental skills. Jake, his demeanor this whole playoff series was outstanding. He will grow from it but not once was he intimidated by the situation, not intimidated by their team, not intimidated by their pressure. He handled everything perfectly, like a real pro, like a franchise goalie.”

• There was no better example of that than Game 7, which was Oettinger’s greatest performance of the series. Considering he shut out the Flames in Game 2 on their ice, that’s saying a lot but it’s true.

First, there are the circumstances. Even though the Stars lost Game 1, the stakes in Game 2 were not very high. The Stars were still the underdog team that was expected to lose so there was very little pressure. By Game 6, the pressure had risen since the Stars were facing elimination but they were at home, playing against a team that didn’t have the same do-or-die energy because the Flames had a cushion.

In Game 7, Oettinger was in a hostile road environment, playing against a team that was better than the Stars but were also at their most desperate. The Stars were still underdogs but through six games, they — and Oettinger, specifically — showed that they belonged so there was at least some pressure to not allow a complete letdown.

Most of all, Oettinger was all alone in Game 7. Jamie Benn scored a goal in the opening minute and Vlad Namestnikov responded to Calgary’s first goal with one of his own but that was it for the scoring. While two goals is a disappointing output, it’s come to be an expectation from the Stars to not light up the scoreboard. What is not expected is for the Stars defense to collapse and leave the goaltender out to dry.

Consider these numbers for what Oettinger faced on Sunday: According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flames had 134 total shots in Game 7 and created 24 high-danger scoring chances. In that Game 2 shutout, Calgary had less than half of Game 7’s total, getting 65 shots off and just 10 high-danger scoring chances. In Game 2, the expected goals against for Oettinger was 2.49 and he faced a total of six high-danger scoring shots. In Game 7, the expected goals against was a whopping 6.75 and Oettinger faced 16 high-danger scoring shots. Only three goals got through, one of which came just after a Flames power play had expired.

“This one’s going to hurt like hell,” Oettinger said. “But I think it’s something we have to learn from.”

• It was borderline comical how difficult of a time Gaudreau had solving Oettinger. Gaudreau is an extremely skilled and talented offensive player who was on the outskirts of Hart Trophy conversations this season. Yet every time he had chance to score, Oettinger was there to deny him. Particularly in the second period, Gaudreau made a slick move to work around Esa Lindell and went right at Oettinger, who made the glove save. At the end of the same period, the Stars got lazy and careless with the puck, giving Gaudreau a prime look at Oettinger from the slot. Oettinger stonewalled him then as well. Gaudreau also had a prime look at the Flames’ power play in overtime.

Among Flames forwards, according to Natural Stat Trick, Gaudreau got the most shots on goal, had the most high-danger scoring chances and had the highest expected goals percentage. Gaudreau defeated his demons in overtime and got the last laugh but it took a lot to do it.

“You go into overtime with Jake, you know it’s going to take a perfect shot to beat him and it was a perfect shot,” Bowness said. “Johnny made a great shot right under the bar. You can’t do anything about that. But Jake Oettinger is a franchise goalie. The good news is he’ll keep getting better.”

• The Stars franchise is no stranger to wasting epic goaltender performances in a seven-game series, with Marty Turco’s 2007 performance against the Vancouver Canucks and Ben Bishop’s 2019 heartbreaker to the St. Louis Blues coming to mind. For many, Oettinger’s performance in the series may have brought back those memories and his Game 7, in particular, may have reminded people of Bishop’s 54-save gem in Game 7 against the Blues in double-overtime.

It’s understandable for those performances to come to mind in the present but there are some stark differences. On a smaller scale, Oettinger finished with 272 saves in the series against the Flames, more than Turco’s 229 in 2007 against the Canucks and more than Bishop’s 230 against the Blues. Oettinger’s performance set the Stars’ franchise record.

But here’s where the biggest difference comes: Oettinger is 23 years old. Bishop was 32 years old when he had that performance against the Blues and Turco was a couple of months away from turning 32 himself in 2007. Those two goalies were battle-tested and had a plethora of regular season and NHL playoff experience. Oettinger was either relatively new or completely new to everything.

But most of all, Oettinger offers hope for a future. Turco played three more seasons in Dallas after his epic performance in 2007. Bishop played just one more season after his 2019 performance before injuries derailed his career. Oettinger is a restricted free agent this summer and expected to live in the Stars’ crease for a while.

“The Dallas Stars are in good shape for a long time with Jake,” Bowness said.

• After the game, Oettinger was disappointed in the season-ending but also showed plenty of eagerness, gratitude and more. Here are some of the highlights from his postgame press conference.

On what Jacob Markstrom told him in the handshake line after the game:

Oettinger: “He said it was a fun battle and I have a bright future. Obviously, he’s a heck of a goalie and it was fun for me to be able to square up against a Vezina Trophy finalist.”

Message from teammates when they greeted him on the ice after the game:

Oettinger: “Just keep your head up. Obviously, it’s really sad and some of those guys, you don’t know if you’re going to play with them ever again so it’s a really tough pill to swallow. We had such a good group of guys in there and such a great coaching staff and management and everything. It’s just a great place to be. It feels like a family in there… You’ve got to enjoy it while you can. It seems like every year flies by. It never ends when you want to unless you win the Cup. This one’s going to hurt for a long time.”

On stepping up even more in the playoffs after a good regular season:

Oettinger: “Everyone needs to step up in the playoffs. You can have a great regular season and then not play well in the playoffs and it doesn’t matter to anyone so I’m happy that I was able to elevate my game. One of the things I love about (goaltending coach Jeff Reese) is that he’s always giving me little stuff to work on. It felt like everything we had talked about and worked on the whole year kind of came together at one time. That’s the level of goaltending I expect from myself. I think I can be a great goalie for a long time. I think I learned just how fun the playoffs are. That’s what it’s all about, being in these situations and giving yourself an opportunity to win. I’ve never been more motivated than I am right now. I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that I get this opportunity again and I’ll make sure I’m on the other side of it next time.”

• The first minute of the game was packed with chaos. Fourteen seconds into the game, Mikael Backlund laid a thunderous hit on Michael Raffl, drawing the first roar from the Calgary crowd. Before the roar could mellow down to a murmur, Jamie Benn turned it into groans when he scored a goal 40 seconds into the game to give the Stars an early 1-0 lead.

• While all of that was happening on the ice, a significant story developed off the ice. After taking warmup rushes minutes earlier, Roope Hintz was a late scratch. Bowness said he found out Hintz would be unavailable eight minutes before the game began.

Thirty-seven regular season goals, and four points in this offensively-challenged series, were suddenly gone. Hintz didn’t participate in morning skate earlier in the day, but it was an optional skate so there was no second thought about it. Tyler Seguin had also missed the skate and Joe Pavelski left early. Hintz’s status for the game didn’t seem to be in question.

“We thought he was going to play,” head coach Rick Bowness said after the game. “He has an oblique injury, he just had a reaction to the treatment. We had to pull him.”

Without Hintz, the Stars were lacking much-needed firepower and one-third of one of the best lines in hockey.

• Luke Glendening missed his first game as a Dallas Star with a lower-body injury. Glendening played in all 82 regular season games and the first six games of the series against the Flames. He exited Game 6 in the second period after absorbing a Nikita Zadorov hit to the head.

According to Bowness, Glendening was not ailing from the hit to the head but was dealing with a separate lower-body injury. Radek Faksa left in the second period and did not return to the game due to an upper-body injury. Between Hintz, Glendening and Faksa, the Stars lost a lot of their faceoff personnel.

• Ty Dellandrea came into the lineup for Glendening and he had a great game. Dellandrea played in Dallas last season out of necessity, as the Stars were hammered with COVID-19 absences and injuries. He spent most of this season in the AHL, with a one-game cameo in the fall. Dellandrea had a great season in the AHL and looked solid being thrown into the fire with the intensity ramped up to the fullest. He played a big role on the Stars’ first goal and didn’t get pushed around by the Flames throughout the night. He played good minutes at five-on-five and the penalty kill.

• Another player that was quite noticeable was Jacob Peterson. He had a great breakaway look and another rush opportunity with Denis Gurianov, who slid into the lineup due to Hintz’s absence. Peterson will need to add some size and get bigger but his hockey skill and hockey IQ are already ahead of the game for a player who just completed his rookie year in the NHL.

• Game 7 saw a lot of John Klingberg paired with Miro Heiskanen, mostly coming on the power play but also at five-on-five late in the game with the score tied, 2-2.

• The Stars had a slow start with a bad first two periods but rebounded with a pretty decent third period and started overtime strongly. In overtime, the Stars have multiple opportunities to end the game, namely off the sticks of Joe Pavelski and Seguin, but they weren’t able to cash in.

• Flames head coach Darryl Sutter chimed in on Oettinger after the game.

“He was the best player in the series, that’s for sure,” Sutter said.

• The Stars’ season is over but their summer is just now beginning and it’s a significant one with some major questions, including if Sunday was the last time John Klingberg plays for the Stars and the last time Bowness coaches the Stars. Both have their contracts expiring this summer. Exit interviews for the Stars with the media will be on Tuesday so we’ll be immediately diving into the offseason questions and storylines.

(Top photo: Derek Leung / Getty Images)