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Jake Oettinger made 29 saves and got his first postseason shutout in his second career playoff start to lift the Dallas Stars over the Calgary Flames 2-0 on Thursday night to even their first-round series at a game each.
Joe Pavelski scored and Michael Raffl added an empty-net goal for the Stars.
The best-of-seven conference quarterfinal series heads to Dallas for Saturday’s Game 3 and Monday’s Game 4 at American Airlines Arena. The Flames opened the series with a 1-0 win Tuesday.
Calgary’s Jacob Markstrom stopped 21 of 22 shots.
“The only thing that matters is wins,” Oettinger said. “They have a great goalie on the other end and we know it’s going to be tight, so the margin for error for me is very slim.”
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Dallas Stars goalie Jake Oettinger, left, kicks the puck away from Calgary Flames left wing Milan Lucic, center, as Flames’ Miro Heiskanen defends during the second period of Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series in Calgary, Alberta, Thursday, May 5, 2022. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)
The Flames outshot the Stars 12-7 in the third period. Raffl scored into an empty net with 1:09 remaining.
“Our goal was to go into Dallas and win two games anyway, so it doesn’t really change our mindset,” Flames forward Tyler Toffoli said.
Outplayed in the opening period, Calgary generated more scoring chances for an 11-7 edge in shots in the second. The Flames were denied by Oettinger, however, and didn’t get their sticks on the few rebounds the goaltender allowed.
“They’re a good defensive team. I thought we had plenty of scoring chances tonight,” Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau said. “Their goalie played well. A couple of 2-on-1s, breakaway, thought we did a good job in their own zone, but got to score, got to bear down and put the puck in the net (starting) with myself.”
In a bid to generate more offense, Stars coach Rick Bowness continued to play forwards Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin on separate lines, as he did in the second and third period of the series opener.
“Not a lot of room out there,” Bowness said. “There’s not a lot of room for them or us. You’ve got to work for everything you get.”
After not registering a shot on net in Game 1, Pavelski scored the first goal of the series for the Stars at 7:47 of the first period on a defensive-zone Flames turnover.
Defenseman Noah Hanifin put the puck off the boards and onto the stick of Jason Robertson inside the blue line. Pavelski deflected Robertson’s shot over Markstrom’s glove.
Johnny Gaudreau appeared to score 43 seconds in for Calagry, but his breakaway goal was waived off for offsides.
Matthew Tkachuk and John Klingberg renewed hostilities from the first game, in which Tkachuk hammered Klingberg into the boards behind Calgary’s net late in the first period.
Tkachuk cross-checked Klingberg, who took a roughing penalty, in the aftermath of Gaudreau’s disallowed goal to send both men to the box.
The Stars were held scoreless on a pair of power-play chances and were 0 for 7 in the first two games of the series. The Flames went 0 for 3 on Thursday and scored one power-play goal on eight chances through the first two games.
