Playoff Takeaways: Oettinger nearly unsolvable, Dallas pushes Vegas to brink of elimination

It took five games, but the home team finally won. 

And in a series that’s looked more like a Stanley Cup Final than a first-round bout, the Dallas Stars’ 3-2 Game 5 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights Wednesday night, earning them a series lead to match, was surely worth the wait for the home crowd. 

After losing the first two games of the series in Dallas, the Stars put on two dominant road performances in Vegas to tie the series heading into Game 5, where they once again were the superior squad. Their third straight win of the series pushes the defending Stanley Cup champions to the brink of elimination. A fourth consecutive victory Friday night will see them lock in a date with the Colorado Avalanche. 

With the series now sitting at 3-2 for Dallas, here are our takeaways from Game 5.

Oettinger unsolvable in third

The Golden Knights’ goaltending situation was one of the biggest storylines heading into Game 5, as head coach Bruce Cassidy made the switch from Logan Thompson to Adin Hill in an effort to drum up a little more energy through his lineup. (It wasn’t the only change Cassidy made — he also threw his top six into a blender.) And while Hill, who backstopped the Golden Knights all the way to the Stanley Cup last spring, had a strong game overall, the better netminder was at the other end of the ice. 

After an uncharacteristic start to the series in which he allowed four goals on 15 shots, Stars netminder Jake Oettinger has really found his game. He’s allowed just two goals in each of the last four games for a combined .932 save percentage over that period, which includes three straight wins. He’s consistently gotten better as each game has gone on, too — he’s been perfect in the third period all series, not letting a single puck past him in the third frame through five games. After allowing two goals in the first period Wednesday, Oettinger held Vegas without a goal for the final 47 minutes of the matchup. 

Wednesday night brought one of his best game-saving stops, a clutch extension to stump Chandlers Stephenson late to preserve his team’s one-goal lead and ultimately clinch the win. 

Hill, too, had himself a very strong game, likely earning another start in what will be a must-win Game 6 for the Golden Knights at home on Friday. Not a single goal was scored by either side in the third period of this one. 

Has Pavelski’s playoff magic worn off?

Dallas’s veterans bring a winning pedigree to the Stars, but it’s been the team’s young superstars who’ve been the driving force behind their victories. Rookie Wyatt Johnston was the two-goal hero in Game 3 and scored another in Game 4, while Jason Robertson notched the game-winner Wednesday night — his third goal of the series. 

Dallas’s depth is a big part of what makes the Stars so scary in the post-season. Even scarier is the fact that not everyone has fully joined the party just yet. Specifically, veteran Joe Pavelski — he of many major playoff moments past — has been so far held off the scoresheet through five games. He missed an easy tap-in Wednesday in a play that would surely haunt his dreams had Dallas not emerged victorious. 

Stars head coach Pete DeBoer reunited Pavelski and Roope Hintz, who’s also been relatively quiet this series, with Robertson on the top line for Game 5. It worked, considering they came away victorious, but the Stars will surely need all hands on deck if they’re to put away Vegas on Friday. Will we see Pavelski’s post-season clutch gene kick in?

Dallas makes Vegas pay for penalties

As physical as this series between Vegas and Dallas has been, this has been the cleanest series across all playoff matchups. Going into Game 5, the two sides had just 40 penalty minutes combined — no big surprise, considering the Stars finished the regular season with the fewest penalties called against them and Vegas wasn’t far behind (fourth fewest PIMS league-wide).

Neither team’s power play has had much opportunity to shine. That changed Wednesday, as three of the game’s five goals came with the man advantage, including Matt Duchene’s first-period marker and Robertson’s game-winner in the second, which came after Alex Pietrangelo took an undisciplined roughing penalty (initially called an elbowing major and then corrected) that left Tyler Seguin bloodied.