Hintz's 3 points lift Stars past Kraken in Game 5

DALLAS --Roope Hintz had two goals and an assist, and the Dallas Stars defeated the Seattle Kraken 5-2 in Game 5 of the Western Conference Second Round at American Airlines Center on Thursday.

Hintz has 18 points (eight goals, 10 assists) in 11 games this postseason, which is tied with Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl (13 goals, five assists in 10 games) for the NHL lead.

"He's been just an absolute monster for us this playoff, and at the most important times," Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. "This is obviously a critical game for our group, and he comes out in the first 10 minutes and basically lets everyone in the building know that he's here to play and dragging our group around. He's done that the entire playoff."

Dallas leads the best-of-7 series 3-2. Game 6 will be in Seattle on Saturday.

Joe Pavelski had a goal and an assist, and Jason Robertson had three assists for the Stars, who are the No. 2 seed from the Central Division. Jake Oettinger made 29 saves.

Adam Larsson and Jared McCann scored, and Philipp Grubauer made 16 saves for the Kraken, who are the first wild card from the West.

"I mean, you want to play aggressive, you want to play on your toes, you want to skate. That's the way we want to play," Seattle forward Jordan Eberle said. "We want to be a quick team, but we have to be smart about it, too. We can't be diving in everywhere and giving them odd-man rushes and opportunities to score. It's just having the smarts and the veteran presence to know when to do that and when not to do it. I think even if you're 98 percent sure and two percent off, the two percent are the ones that end up in the back of your net. We have to find a way to just continue to play that way but limit the chances they get."

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Wyatt Johnston gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 3:57 of the first period, scoring glove side from the low slot off a pass from Jamie Benn from below the goal line.

Hintz made it 2-0 at 5:35, again beating Grubauer glove side from the top of the left circle.

"We found ourselves in a 2-0 hole. … Overall [it was] the difference of the hockey game," Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. "… We've got to be a little bit more patient so that we're not giving up a couple of the transition plays that we did, and we're going to have to be a little harder to generate more at the other end of the rink. They did a really good job tonight of making it hard to get inside and hard to get to their net."

Pavelski extended the lead to 3-0 when he chipped in his own rebound 35 seconds into the second period.

Larsson made it 3-1 at 1:59, scoring short side over Oettinger's glove from the right hash marks.

McCann, who was playing his second game since returning from an undisclosed injury, cut it to 3-2 at 7:30 when his turnaround shot above the right circle deflected in off the leg of Joel Hanley.

"I think it was important to keep our poise," Robertson said. "[Oettinger] made some big saves, he had some big blocks. Everyone had to dig in a little extra. Those are types of playoff games you want to be on the ice for. You want to play, you want to battle, you want to compete. [You want to] be out there, battle for your teammates, your goalie, your fans, everything. Those are fun ones. I'm just glad we didn't sit back. We wanted to attack and try to get the next one. When we do that, we kind of try to shut the game down."

Hintz's second of the game pushed it to 4-2 at 11:20 of the third period. Robertson's centering pass caromed to him at the edge of the crease, and he roofed a shot over the right shoulder of Grubauer.

"We're hopefully going to be [leading] a lot, and that's what you've got to do to win it this time of year," Oettinger said. "They're a great team. They're going to throw everything they have at you, especially when you get a lead late. Those are the moments that guys step up, whether it's blocking shots, moving pucks out. It's all the little plays you talk about all year, that's when they pay off."

Radek Faksa scored into an empty net at 16:43 for the 5-2 final.

"I mean, they're skilled, fast, big, whatever you want to call it," Larsson said. "I mean, I think we've been playing pretty good hockey. … I'm confident we can come back in this series. It's far from over. So just kind of regroup here, keep pushing forward."

NOTES: Pavelski has scored seven goals against the Kraken in the Western Second Round. He is the oldest player (38 years, 304 days) in NHL history to score that many in a series, passing Maurice Richard (36 years, 240 days), who scored seven goals for the Montreal Canadiens in the 1958 NHL Semifinals. … McCann's goal was the first of his career in the playoffs. He led Seattle with an NHL career-high 40 goals during the regular season.