Jake Oettinger made 22 saves and Roope Hintz and Wyatt Johnston scored to lead the Dallas Stars to a 2-1 win over the visiting Seattle Kraken in Game 7 of their Western Conference semifinal series on Monday. The Stars advance to face the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference finals, with Game 1 in Las Vegas on Friday. Dallas is in the conference finals for the first time since the 2020 playoffs, when the Stars lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final. Hintz opened the scoring after a takeaway at 15:59 of the second period, tallying his fourth goal of the series and ninth of the postseason. Hintz has 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists) in the 2023 playoffs, the most of any player still active.
Grubauer stopped 26 of 28 shots, keeping Seattle close despite waves of offensive pressure from the Stars. The Kraken and Stars combined for 49 goals in the first six games, but scoring was much more limited in Game 7, despite multiple close chances.
Both teams had two players (Dallas' Miro Heiskanen and Jason Robertson, Seattle's Bjorkstrand and Jamie Oleksiak) hit the goalpost on near-miss shots. --Field Level Media
