Stars continue division title quest with another game against Kraken

The Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken are set to meet for the second time in three days on Monday in Seattle, after their first meeting was eventful for both.

Dallas clinched a playoff berth, and the Kraken were officially eliminated from the postseason in a 5-1 win by the visiting Stars on Saturday.

The Stars (48-21-4, 100 points) have qualified for the postseason the past four seasons, reaching the Western Conference finals the past two years.

“I never take making the playoffs for granted,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “It’s a really hard league just to get one of those 16 spots. You always enjoy that, and you never take it for granted, because there’s a lot of work that goes into that.” Stars continue division title quest with another game against Kraken | Reuters

Stars continue division title quest with another game against Kraken | Reuters

The Stars have won five in a row overall to move within four points of the Winnipeg Jets for first place in the Central Division. Dallas has nine games left to try to catch the Jets, who they host on April 10.

“You work all year (to make the playoffs), now we’re focused on winning the division,” Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger said.

Mikko Rantanen continues to settle in nicely with the Stars since his acquisition on March 7 from the Carolina Hurricanes. He had a goal and two assists in the win against the Kraken to give him four goals and seven assists in 11 games with Dallas.

“I thought Rantanen was outstanding, our best player by far,” DeBoer said. “That line is starting to get some chemistry, it looked dangerous. Wyatt Johnston had another big goal, making it look easy.”

The Stars lost four of six following the acquisition of Rantanen, but they seem to have found chemistry in the past five games.

“Our game is building. It’s not perfect yet, but a lot of good things done (against Seattle),” DeBoer said. “We’re still taking too many penalties for me, so we’ve got to clean that up, but I thought we had some really good individual performances.”

Oettinger has won his past five starts and can match his season-high win streak with another victory against the Kraken. Stars continue division title quest with another game against Kraken | Reuters

“He’s our backbone back there,” Dallas forward Mason Marchment said of Oettinger. “We all have so much confidence in him, and he’s not just our goalie, he’s a leader on our team, so when he’s standing on his head and he’s making those big saves, it really fires us up.”

The Kraken (31-37-6, 68 points) have lost four of five following their most recent defeat against the Stars.

Seattle went 0 for 4 on the power play and 3 for 5 on the penalty kill against Dallas, which Kraken coach Dan Bylsma called the story of the game.

“It didn’t necessarily have the feel of a 5-1 game,” Bylsma said. “It’s uncharacteristic of our group to take a lot of penalties. It’s a huge part of the game, especially against good power plays. The best way to keep them up on the score sheet is not to give them the opportunity. I don’t think we’ve been taking an exorbitant number of penalties lately … maybe the timeliness and the undisciplined penalties have been the hurting factor.”

NHL playoff standings: The Stars’ path to a Central title

The Stars were the third team to clinch a playoff berth this season, and the most likely outcome for Dallas is earning the No. 2 seed in the Central Division and squaring off with the Colorado Avalanche in the first round.

But the Stars still have a chance to claim the division title — and a first-round matchup with one of the wild-card teams.

Heading into Monday night, the Stars are six points behind the Winnipeg Jetsat106-100, and one point behind in regulation wins (40-39). If Dallas is going to catch Winnipeg, it should definitely win Monday’s game against the Seattle Kraken (10 p.m., ESPN+). The Kraken were eliminated from playoff contention Saturday night.

Looking beyond Monday, the Stars play games against current playoff teams just twice, and one of those is a “four-point game” against the Jets on April 10. For comparison, the Jets face current playoff teams five times in their remaining schedule.

Stars continue division title quest with another game against Kraken - NewsBreak

The chances aren’tsuper high that the Stars get this done; the Stathletes projection model gives the Jets an 82.8% chance of winning the Central title, compared with 17.2% for the Stars. But by winning games that they should win against non-playoff teams — and getting some help from Winnipeg’s opponents — they can definitely pull this off.

Stars coach Pete DeBoer back after having an appendectomy

There are less than three weeks left until April 17, and we’ll help you track it all with the NHL playoff watch. As we traverse the final stretch, we’ll provide details on all the playoff races, along with the teams jockeying for position in the 2025 NHL draft lottery.

Stars continue division title quest with another game against Kraken

NHL playoff standings: The Stars’ path to a Central title

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