Heika’s Take: Stars eliminate defending champs in Game 7, wrap emotional series

This Stars season has been a fun ride so far, with dozens of subplots along the way.

Many of them came together on Sunday in a 2-1 Game 7 win over the Vegas Golden Knights.

In knocking off the defending Stanley Cup champions, Dallas saw tremendous depth performances from players like Evgenii Dadonov, Craig Smith, Sam Steel, Ty Dellandrea and Radek Faksa, as well as huge “step-up” games from the likes of Wyatt Johnston, Jason Robertson and Jake Oettinger. In the end, those personal battles helped head coach Pete DeBoer defeat the team that fired him two years ago and push his career record in Game 7’s to 8-0.

“There’s a lot there to unpack,” DeBoer said.

Indeed there is. DeBoer and his best friend, assistant head coach Steve Spott, were let go by Vegas two seasons ago after missing the playoffs. New coach Bruce Cassidy was hired and won the Stanley Cup in his first season. In addition, the Golden Knights beat Dallas in six games in the Western Conference Final en route to that title last season. The Stars added scoring depth in the offseason, including Steel, Smith, Dadonov and Matt Duchene in hopes of competing with Vegas. And then, right out of the gate in the First Round, Vegas won Games 1 and 2 in Dallas and put the Stars in an enormous hole.

So, in the past five games, the lads in Victory Green received some huge performances by their depth scorers, some massive saves from Oettinger, who struggled in the playoffs down the stretch last season, and also some really solid coaching. In the end, the Stars were the better team. They made one more play, got one more save and scored one more key goal.

And that means a lot – not only for this season going forward – but for the franchise as a whole.

“That’s what you have to do,” DeBoer said. “In order to win, you’ve got to have those stories of guys stepping up.”

Oettinger was at the heart of everything. While going to the Western Conference Final last season, Oettinger posted a 3.06 GAA and .895 save percentage in the 2023 playoffs. He then followed that up by looking leaky in Game 1 of this series and losing the first two games. But, in the past five contests, Oettinger has a 1.53 GAA and .942 save percentage.

That’s a statement.

“It had a lot of ups and downs. I had some dark moments in the regular season. I felt like I didn’t play my best game in Game 1 of the series. After that, I felt really good about my game,” Oettinger said. “With how good of a team we are, if I do my job, we’re going to be a tough team to beat. I’m trying to be a small part of this team and do my job. There are still some things I can clean up. I’m excited to have played well and help this team move on.”

So are his teammates.

Dellandrea was a healthy scratch for 40 regular season games and the first two in the playoffs, but he came in and scored the game-winner in Game 4. Faksa was out with an injury and missed Games 3-6. He came in for Game 7 and scored the game-winner.

“It’s huge,” said Faksa, who promised his son while playing on Sunday that he would score a goal in Game 7. “I had a tough time watching the game, so I was just happy to be back. It means a lot to me, and I am happy we won the series because Vegas has a hell of a team. They have so many good guys, and it was a big war every game. Every game was so close, and a huge credit to them, but we are happy. It was a big redemption from last year, and I am very happy we could move to the next round.”

The Golden Knights battled injuries throughout the season and that meant they came in as the eighth seed and played the top-seeded Stars. However, Vegas got healthy before the playoffs and was a much better team than their regular-season record showed. And, again, they won the first two games of the series and the Stars were 0-9 in Dallas history when starting down 0-2. So winning Game 7 was a big deal.

“It’s obviously emotional,” DeBoer said. “So many emotions going back to last year and losing, the mixed emotions. There are so many great people over there that I worked with. I have great affection for them, and we were happy for them to win, but we really wanted to win this series. We wanted our turn. We did all the right things all year to get the first seed and then you draw a team like Vegas which I honestly think has a deeper team than last year.”

As it has been for much of the series, the game was closely fought and defensive. Then, Vegas rang a post and Johnston forced a turnover and scored an unassisted goal, his fourth of the playoffs. That stood until Dallas had a breakdown in coverage by Nils Lundkvist and Robertson, and Vegas tied things up at the 15:25 mark of the second period.

That could have been devastating, but the fourth line came out and set the tone early in the third period. Smith and Steel helped create puck possession, and Faksa wheeled around and flung a backhand shot that deflected off a stick and into the net for the game-winner.

Oettinger and the team defense then closed things out. Dallas held Vegas to just five shots on goal in the third period before the Golden Knights pulled their goalie for a final flurry. It was a strong statement by players like Jamie Benn (who won 8 of 14 faceoffs) and Johnston, who made a few key defensive plays down the stretch. Mix in great defense by Chris Tanev, Esa Lindell and Thomas Harley, and you have a really impactful statement by the entire team.

“We take a lot of pride in playing good defense,” Benn said. “We know we can score goals. You’ve got to play 200-foot hockey and take care of your own end first. Our goalie was our best player in the third period. The guys did great at locking it down and doing what it takes to win a hockey game.”

And now, they get the prize of taking on the Colorado Avalanche, who crushed Winnipeg in the first round and had a week of rest before Game 1 on Tuesday. But, this team believes what it just went through should be pretty good preparation.

“It’s another big test, a huge test,” DeBoer said. “There are some similarities to Vegas, and the one thing about them is we’re very familiar with them. It’s not like we need a lot of work on pre-scout. We’re very familiar with each other. We’ll enjoy this one in the short term and then start thinking about that.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.