Roope Hintz scored two goals and an assist, Joe Pavelski scored his seventh goal of the second-round series and the Dallas Stars beat the Seattle Kraken 5-2 in Game 5 on Thursday night to move in a victory of advance to the Western Conference Finals. .
Pavelski also had an assist on Hintz’s second goal, which ricocheted hard out of the net with 8:37 to go for a two-goal lead, although play continued for nearly half a minute before a replay that confirmed the score. Radek Faksa added an empty net with 3:17 to go.
Dallas will take a 3-2 lead in Game 6 on Saturday in Seattle, where the teams split a pair of lopsided games. The Kraken won 7-2 in Game 3, then the Stars bounced back with a 6-3 win in Game 4.
Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger made 29 saves.
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Roope Hintz of the Dallas Stars celebrates after scoring against the Seattle Kraken in the first period of Game 5 of a second-round Stanley Cup playoff series in NHL hockey Thursday, May 11, 2023 in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Pavelski’s score on a backhand in the first minute of the second period, hitting his own rebound, gave the Stars a 3-0 lead. His 71st career playoff goal extended his record for American-born players.
Pavelski tied Sidney Crosby for the second-most career playoff goals by an active player — just one behind Alex Ovechkin. Pavelski and Crosby are tied with Hall of Famer Bryan Trottier for 17th on the overall list.
Hintz had eight goals and 10 assists in the Stars’ 11 playoff games. Pavelski missed the last five games of the team’s first-round series against Minnesota while in concussion protocol after a hit in Game 1.
When Pavelski returned for the opener against the Kraken, he scored all four goals for Dallas in a 5-4 overtime loss.
Rookie center Wyatt Johnston also scored for the Stars, who hope to repeat the pattern of their opening series against Minnesota. They also lost that opener in overtime at home and were down 2-1 in the series before winning three in a row and wrapping up with a win on the road.
Adam Larsson and Jared McCann scored for Seattle in the second period.
Dallas Stars’ Roope Hintz #24 celebrates his goal with Thomas Harley #55 in the first period against the Seattle Kraken in Game 5 of the second round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs at American Airlines Center on May 11, 2023, in Dallas , Texas. (Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
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McCann, their leading scorer with 40 in the regular season, earned his first of the playoffs and became the 18th Kraken player to score this postseason. It was only his second game after missing six in a row due to an injury sustained on a late hit by Colorado’s Cale Makar early in Game 4 of the first round.
Dallas quickly took an early 1-0 lead when captain Jamie Benn recovered a puck stuck behind the net and made a quick pass past Johnston.
Jason Robertson, who in the regular season became Dallas’ leading 100-point scorer, had three assists even as his scoring drought stretched to six games.
Robertson and Thomas Harley provided the assists on Hintz’s goal after just 5½ minutes to make it 2-0. Hintz scored from the top of the left circle with a high level shot over the shoulder of Phillip Grubauer, which stopped 16 shots.
Just 35 seconds into the middle period, Robertson got the main assist on Pavelksi’s goal.
Dallas Stars number 16 Joe Pavelski celebrates a goal against the Seattle Kraken in Game 5 of the second round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs at American Airlines Center on May 11, 2023 in Dallas, Texas. (Glenn James/NHLI via Getty Images)
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Thursday marked the series’ first return to Dallas after a deadly shooting Saturday at the Allen Premium Outlets mall in which eight people were killed and seven others injured. The shooter was killed by a police officer four minutes after the rampage began.
There was a moment of silence and reflection observed before the national anthem for the town of Allen – a suburb of Dallas – and the victims. Players on both teams wore “Allen Strong” decals on their helmets.
