Ticket punched: How Game 7 put a perfect bow on Stars’ historic First Round series

As Stars skaters swarmed goaltender Jake Oettinger and confetti descended upon the Stars faithful in the stands on Sunday night, it came with a wave of realizations.

The Stars had won a Game 7 for the second straight year. They had defeated the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights, adding motivation to a potential Cup run of their own. And the stakes somehow skyrocketed as a Second Round matchup with the Colorado Avalanche came into focus.

But perhaps the most prevalent of all was…

Man, that was fun.

“It feels great,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said. “These are the best games to be a part of. The Game 7s are what you dream about when you’re young and playing in the backyard. What an atmosphere to play in front of our fans and get a big win.”

“It’s obviously emotional,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer added. “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.”

In the previous 14 days, the Stars were on a rollercoaster. After posting the second-best record both in the NHL and in franchise history, Dallas clinched the top seed in the West. Their reward? A Vegas team plagued by injuries in the regular season that snuck in as the eight seed with a full attendance lineup.

It couldn’t have started much worse. The Golden Knights stole the first two games in Dallas to jump out to a 2-0 series lead. The Stars had put forth two strong efforts, but Vegas won the smallest details, and that was the difference.

As a result, the Stars headed for Vegas in need of a bounce back. Since moving to Dallas, the team had a series record of 0-9 when losing the first two. To amplify that, their last time falling into an 0-2 hole was 11 months earlier to the same opponent. History was certainly against them.

But as the Stars did many times this season, they persevered. They took the ice in the Knights’ first home playoff game since winning the Cup and put the champs on their heels. And as a 2-2 game entered overtime, Wyatt Johnston once again stepped into the spotlight on the biggest stage of the season to date. The 20-year-old potted his first playoff game-winner since Game 7 against the Seattle Kraken in 2023. Just like that, the lead was cut in half.

In Game 4, Dallas once again committed to its defensive structure and erased two deficits using depth scoring to claim a 4-2 win. The momentum leaked over into Game 5 as the Stars won their first home game.

As they returned to Vegas looking for a knockout blow, the champs made one last push. Adin Hill posted a 23-save shutout and a fluky goal by Noah Hanifin served as the game-winning goal (GWG). With that, the series reached a deciding Game 7 that had seemed all too inevitable.

In the history of Game 7 in the NHL, playing at home and getting the first goal offers decisive statistical advantages. The Stars had both after Johnston, who continues to pen a historic sophomore campaign, sprung on a loose puck and ripped a wrist shot past Hill to open the scoring in the first. Vegas would respond with a late goal in the second to knot things up.

As the third period opened, the stage awaited a hero to step up. The Golden Knights had plenty from their 2023 Cup run to choose from. Dallas, meanwhile, had a number of candidates known for stepping up.

But this situation felt different. The difference between winning and losing this series seemed wider than ever before. They needed the win to keep a well-built dream alive. To fizzle out in the opening round against the team that had their number for the past year after a historic season was too frustrating to bear.

So, when the fourth line opened the period with a ferocious shift, there was a sense of hope. It didn’t take long for that hope to cash. Radek Faksa, who had missed the previous four games with an injury, received a pass from Craig Smith and ripped a backhand shot on net. And, in an eerily similar fashion to Hanifin’s Game 6 winner, the puck took a perfect deflection into the net.

Back in November 2017, Faksa scored the first hat trick against Vegas in its franchise history. Now he has the game-winning goal that ended the Knights’ Cup defense season. That’s a hell of a resume.

He also became the fifth Game 7 GWG scorer in Dallas history. All five have less than 170 career goals. Similar to Gusteau’s book “Anyone Can Cook” in Ratatouille, anyone can be a Game 7 hero.

“It was the biggest goal of my career,” Faksa said. “After every pregame skate, I play mini stick hockey with my son. I promised him I would score a goal tonight and I’m glad I did. I’m so excited to show him a video of the goal in the morning. I’m so happy.”

Of Faksa’s nine playoff goals, four of them are game-winners.

As the clock ticked away, Oettinger once again boasted impressive Game 7 charisma. The Stars locked it down defensively, allowing just eight shots in the 3^rd period. Oettinger turned aside each one.

The 25-year-old is now 2-1 in Game 7s with a .956 save percentage and 1.54 GAA. After a 64-save showing in 2022 against Calgary ended in overtime pain, he’s allowed just two goals in the past two. And after a season of ups and downs for the young goaltender, he truly seemed to get better in each game during the series and stood tall when the pressure mounted.

Now, maybe it shouldn’t be all that surprising that a team with the 2^nd most comeback wins in the NHL (26) this season found a way to navigate out of an 0-2 hole.

But in the history of the NHL, teams were a combined 55-351 (.135) in series after dropping the first two games. That includes a 10-66 mark since 2014. Notable outliers include the 2014 Kings and the 2018 Capitals, who both won the Cup. There’s also the 2019 Hurricanes, who knocked out the defending champion Capitals.

Make it 56-351 now. The Stars achieved the feat for the first time in Dallas history and second in franchise history (and first since the team’s inaugural season in 1967-68). Meanwhile, Vegas falls to 4-1 all-time when leading a series 2-0. How’s that for unexpected?

Then there’s DeBoer’s historic run. In career Game 7s, DeBoer is now a perfect 8-0. That ties the most wins by any coach or player in NHL history and is the only perfect record among bench bosses. Perhaps the most impressive part is that he’s done it with four different teams. Wherever he goes and whoever the personnel, he knows just what buttons to push on the biggest stages.

“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,” DeBoer said. “To plow through the adversity of being down 2-0 . . . there is a lot there to unpack.”

To etch his streak into the history books against the team that fired him and assistant coach Steve Spott two years ago is a poetic cherry on top.

This First Round showdown with Vegas will go down as one of the best playoff series in Dallas postseason history. The flair, adversity and cinema were unparalleled and provided an incredible first chapter for the Stars’ 2024 playoff book. Conquering the demons of the past should provide an immense boost of momentum as they dive into the next round against a familiar rival in the Avalanche.

And if the opening round is any indicator, the fun is just beginning.

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

Josh Clark is a writer for DallasStars.com. Follow him on Twitter @Josh_Clark02.