With under three minutes left in Wednesday’s Game 5, Matt Duchene and Tyler Seguin watched Vegas forward Chandler Stephenson make a break for the net.
Stephenson beat Stars defensemen Miro Heiskanen and Thomas Harley, setting up a 1-on-1 breakaway against goalie Jake Oettinger to tie the game.
“I won’t say what was going through my head,” Duchene joked.
“I was on the ice watching that breakaway and said a prayer,” Seguin added, “but I should’ve just trusted in Jake.”
Oettinger made his 24th save of the night on that play, stuffing Stephenson with his right pad to preserve Dallas’ 3-2 lead. It was the highlight of an outstanding third-period for the goalie, who has come alive late in games all series.
Through the first five games of the playoffs, Oettinger is a perfect 55 for 55 in the third period and overtime. All 12 goals he’s let in have been in the first two periods.
“He really has the ability to go to another level at the most important time of the game regardless of what’s happened earlier in the game,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “He’s got that mentality that great goaltenders do that they can go to that next level at the most important point in the game.”
Oettinger showed that ability the last two games when the Stars took a 3-2 lead entering the last 20 minutes. In Game 4, Oettinger made 14 saves in the final frame. In Game 5, he made 11.
Those numbers contributed to his 25 total saves Wednesday for a .926 save percentage.
He also has been able to have a short memory and forget some of his weaker moments early on in games. In Game 5, he allowed a goal on the first shot he faced all night, though it was on a perfect deflection from Mark Stone on the power play. Later that period, he let William Carrier beat him to the post from the trapezoid.
But when his team picked him up with a power-play goal in the second period by Jason Robertson to take the lead, Oettinger finished Vegas off from there.
“He’s getting better and better as the series is going, and we needed it,” Duchene said. “This series, every game has been a one-goal game, so you need your goalies to come up big, and he sure did.”
Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy noted after Game 5 that the goaltending has been solid across the board all series. His goaltenders have had the more eye-catching performances, after Logan Thompson — who played the first four games of the series — earned first star of the night after making 43 saves in the 3-2 overtime loss. Adin Hill came in for his first playoff game of the year and made 22 saves Wednesday night.
Oettinger hasn’t been perfect this series, but he’s improved every night. Through five games, he has a .911 save percentage and 2.31 goals-against average — both improvements from his .905 save percentage and 2.72 goals-against average in the regular season.
The Stars haven’t needed perfection from their goalie in all 60 minutes each night. But the 20 minutes of lockdown play he’s given them each outing has been more than enough to put the series title within reach.
“He makes those big saves and timely saves, and you need a guy like that this time of year,” Seguin said. “We have so much confidence in him.”
