With postseason approaching, Stars take care of business vs. floundering Sharks

Within the midst of an in depth playoff race for the 2 Wild Card spots within the Western Convention, the Stars want all of the factors they’ll muster over the ultimate two weeks of the common season.

Saturday’s recreation in opposition to the reeling Sharks was a chief alternative to seize a win and a invaluable two factors.

Dallas received the job executed.

After the Mavericks began their playoff run with a loss earlier within the day, the Stars moved one step nearer to nailing down their postseason spot with a 2-1 victory on the American Airways Heart.

“At this level of the 12 months, we’re simply seeking to get two factors,” Luke Glendening mentioned. “It wasn’t our greatest recreation. However we discovered a method and people are two big factors for us.”

The win allowed Dallas (91 factors) to maintain tempo with Nashville (91 factors) for the highest Wild Card spot after the Predators defeated the Blackhawks earlier within the day. The Stars additionally moved 4 factors above the Golden Knights (87 factors), who fell 4-0 to the Oilers.

Vegas has performed yet another recreation than each the Dallas and the Predators.

“We’re pushing,” Stars coach Rick Bowness mentioned. “We’d like to get into seventh place.”

San Jose entered the sport winless within the month of April, together with a 5-4 loss to the Stars two Saturdays in the past.

The Sharks’ struggles continued early on as Dallas opened the scoring lower than six minutes into the primary interval with Tyler Seguin’s twenty third aim of the 12 months.

Jamie Benn received the faceoff within the San Jose zone, and the puck discovered its technique to Ryan Suter in house on the close to facet of the ice. With Seguin behind the Sharks protection and dashing in the direction of the web, Suter whipped the puck in in the direction of aim. Benn, stationed in entrance of goalie Kaapo Kahkonen, gave it the gentlest of touches to place it proper on a plate for Seguin to put it dwelling.

Dallas added its second aim on the penalty kill, due to a short-handed rush from Glendening and Michael Raffl. Glendening glided into the San Jose zone and lofted a bouncing, backhanded go in the direction of Raffl that the winger slammed previous Kahkonen.

The Sharks had their possibilities to fit the puck previous Jake Oettinger. However they weren’t ready to take action till the ultimate minute of the second interval when Timo Meier’s wrist shot beat Oettinger to chop the deficit.

The Dallas netminder had his justifiable share of good saves, together with an prolonged foot save on a Noah Gregor shot within the second interval that drew loud cheers from the packed crowd. He completed with 23 saves on 24 pictures.

“He made nice reads on the performs,” Bowness mentioned. “His place was nice. His poise was good. He seemed very a lot below management.”

The sport lacked the identical depth because the Stars’ earlier two video games however Bowness mentioned the crew received the job executed within the third interval. San Jose wasn’t in a position to get right into a sustained rhythm and managed solely six pictures on aim in the complete interval.

Dallas now heads north for its remaining highway journey of the marketing campaign — a three-game swing by means of Canada — earlier than ending off the 2021-22 marketing campaign with 4 video games at dwelling. That features its remaining matchup with Vegas on April 26.

“We needed to handle enterprise right here at dwelling and set ourself up for an awesome highway journey,” Oettinger mentioned. “If we handle enterprise on the highway, I believe final week of the season, we received’t actually need to depend on anybody.”

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