Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 24: Hurricanes advance to Eastern Conference Final off OT thriller, Dallas’ stars give them Game 5 win

Scott Maxwell
Scott Maxwell
Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 24: Hurricanes advance to Eastern Conference Final off OT thriller, Dallas’ stars give them Game 5 win
Credit: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports

Game 5’s always seem to have the biggest swings in terms of the impact it has on the series, and this first set of them in the second round is no different. One game saw one team fending for their playoff lives while the other was looking to move on, and the other game saw both teams looking to take that all-important 3-2 series lead.

How did both games dictate the playoff scene? Let’s dive into the action and find out.

Jesper Fast’s OT winner sends Canes to Eastern Conference Final

Through the first four games in this second round series between the Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils, the closest game was won by a margin of four goals. It has not been a tight series at all, both on an individual game basis and an overall basis with the Canes leading the series 3-1. Thankfully, these two teams were kind enough to give us a close game before the series ended.

We saw those signs of a tight-knit game to start, with the Devils scoring the lone goal of the period as Dawson Mercer opened it with five minutes to go in the frame off of an excellent pass from Meier. It looked like they might build towards a solid win, especially with Akira Schmid finally giving them strong goaltending by stopping all eight shots in the first, but that was quickly erased in the second with Jaccob Slavin scoring 50 seconds into the period with a shot that deflected off of a Devil and in.

The back-and-forth second continued, as Meier added to the score again with a goal by burying the rebound from Dougie Hamilton’s shot to regain the 2-1 lead. He’d get another chance to add to it later in the period off of an amazing passing play between himself, Michael McLeod, and Jack Hughes, but Meier missed the wide open net, and he paid mightily for it, as his former teammate Brent Burns buried a point shot with eyes to tie it with 38 to go in the second to tie the game for the Canes.

The later and later the tie held in the third period, the more it seemed to work in Carolina’s favour, and that it did. Even though it needed overtime, the Hurricanes burned the Devils on a delay of game penalty as Jesper Fast deflected Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s shot to end the game and the series. Meier was the lone player in the game with two points, even though he likely leaves the game with nightmares, while Schmid stopped 36 of 39 shots in the loss and Frederik Andersen stopped 27 of 29 in the win.

With that, the Canes move on to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time since 2019, and will face the winner of the series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers. The Devils run comes to an end, but there’s still plenty more to come from this young group that will gladly take snapping their 11-year playoff series win drought this year.

Hintz, Robertson’s three-point nights give Stars chance to end series in Seattle

After a season that sent Jason Robertson into superstar status, his performance in this series has been somewhat underwhelming for the Dallas Stars, especially in this second round series against the Seattle Kraken. Through four games, he had just one assist coming in their 6-3 Game 4 win, a hopeful sign that he was building towards a much bigger game.

That certainly was the case in Game 5. Like a lot of games in this second round, the Stars exploded to an early 3-0 lead, with Wyatt Johnston opening the scoring less than four minutes in, and Roope Hintz adding to that lead less than two minutes later. That was all the scoring for the first, but Joe Pavelski made it 3-0 35 seconds into the second, and Robertson already had two assists on the latter two goals.

The Kraken weren’t going without a fight though. Adam Larsson scored just 1:24 after Pavelski’s goal to make it 3-1, and then Jared McCann scored later into the period, and suddenly it was a one goal game already, something we haven’t really seen with these recent blowouts.

The pressure continued to grow as nobody else scored for more than 23 minutes, leaving many unsure about if the Stars would add an insurance goal, or the Kraken would complete the comeback. Thankfully for Dallas, it was the former, as Hintz scored his second of the night midway through the period to give the Stars some breathing room, and then Radek Faksa put the nail in the coffin with an empty net goal to give the Stars a 5-2 win. Hintz finished with two goals and an assist while Robertson had three assists on the night, and Jake Oettinger had a much-improved night by stopping 29 of 31 shots in the win.

Keep scrolling for more content!