The Stars, who are the No. 2 seed from the Central Division, will have home-ice advantage against the Kraken, the first wild card in the West. Game 1 is Tuesday at Dallas (9:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, CBC, TVAS).
Dallas advanced by eliminating the Minnesota Wild with a 4-1 win in Game 6 of the best-of-7 first round at Excel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Friday.
The Kraken became the first expansion team in NHL history to defeat the reigning Stanley Cup champions in their first playoff series when they won Game 7 at the Colorado Avalanche 2-1 on Sunday.
"I've been on some long playoff runs, and you can't underestimate some extra days off at this point," Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. "We're going to take full advantage of them. We need them. We're beaten and bruised, and Minnesota made sure that they took a chunk out of us on the way out here."
Forward Roope Hintz led the Stars with 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in the first round against the Wild. Forward Jason Robertson had seven points (two goals, five assists), and forward Tyler Seguin (four goals, two assists) and defenseman Miro Heiskanen (six assists) had six points each. Jake Oettinger started all six games for Dallas with a 2.01 goals-against average and .929 save percentage.
Dallas went 2-0-1 against Seattle during the regular season. Heiskanen led the Stars with seven points (two goals, five assists), Jamie Benn had six points (two goals, four assists) and Pavelski had five points (three goals, two assists).
Oettinger played all three games, going 2-0-1 with a 3.30 GAA and .884 save percentage.
Forward Yanni Gourde led the Kraken with six points (one goal, five assists) against the Avalanche. Philipp Grubauer started all seven games in the first round with a 2.44 GAA and .926 save percentage.
"We know Dallas, they're waiting for us," Gourde said. "They have a great group -- four lines, six great defensemen. It's not going to be an easy task."
Vince Dunn led the Kraken with four points (all assists) against the Stars, and Brandon Tanev (two goals, one assist), Daniel Sprong (one goal, two assists) and Carson Soucy (three assists) had three points each.
Seattle used a different goalie in each game against Dallas. Grubauer allowed four goals on 25 shots in a 4-3 overtime loss March 11; Martin Jones allowed five goals on 32 shots in a 5-2 loss March 13; and
Joey Daccord
made 25 saves in a 5-4 overtime win March 21.
"When you look at the regular season, pretty tight games here," Grubauer said. "But they're a really good team, and the playoffs, the cards get mixed newly. They're fresh, and we got a couple days of rest, so we've got to make sure we prepare ourselves really well."
NHL.com staff writer Tracey Myers and columnist Nicholas J. Cotsonika contributed to this report
