Stars’ Jacob Peterson found himself in front of the Philadelphia net on January 24 and fired a shot with such velocity that the NHL officials on the ice were not sure if it was a goal or not… and neither was Peterson.
“We got the puck deep, and I was just trying to get open there, and Rads (Alexander Radulov) found me, and I just shot it,” he said. “And I actually didn’t see it go in, so Rads told me it was a goal, so it was a nice feeling.”
Peterson’s goal came at the 16:35 mark of the third period and unknotted a 1-1 tie to give the Stars a 2-1 lead. Ahead of the goal, Radulov took the puck, faked left, and then went right, confusing Flyers Wade Allison so severely that the right-winger fell to the ice. Radulov skated behind the Flyer net, passed to Peterson, and Peterson’s shot went off Philadelphia goalie Carter Hart’s shoulder, into the back of the net, and then the puck bounced back into play.
The referees didn’t signal that the goal was scored, but the Stars players celebrated. The replay showed the shot was a goal and pushed the Stars to the third-period lead.
Later in the final frame, and after Hart was pulled from the net by Philadelphia for a man-advantage in an attempt to tie the score again, Roope Hintz (who opened the scoring in the first period with his eightieth goal of the season) stole a pass from a Flyer, flipped it to a streaking Joe Pavelski who took a shot from behind the centerline that avoided a defenders stick for an empty-net score. It was Pavelski’s seventeenth goal of the year. The empty-netter secured a 3-1 win for Dallas, their third consecutive road win.
Jacob Oettinger, who came into the contest with two subpar performances in his last two starts, was in the net for Dallas and stopped all but one of the Flyers twenty-eight shots. The one shot that Oettinger missed had bounced off a teammate’s leg.
“It was obviously a big win for the team and for me personally,” he said. “I think I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, and you know; obviously everyone has a conscience, and they get those bad thoughts that speak into your head, and obviously I had those today and just tried to block those out. At the end of the day, I’m playing in the NHL, you know, it’s a dream come true.”
The win pushed Oettinger’s record on the season to 10-4-0 and the Stars to 21-16-2. The Stars have a total of forty-eight points and are setting themselves well for wild card contention for the playoffs.
The Stars will try to make it a perfect 4-0 on the road as they face New Jersey before returning home to take on the Washington Capitals. Their next home game will start at 8 p.m. at the American Airline Center on January 28.
