After posting a 46-30-6 mark this season, the Dallas Stars punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the fifth consecutive year and will travel to Calgary to take on the Flames in first-round action on Tuesday, May 3.
Dallas made the playoffs by securing a wild card spot in the last week of the regular season, led by their top scoring line in Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz, and Joe Pavelski. The trio accounted for more than 45% of the team’s goals this season.
“I’ll tell you how much he loves to score goals,” Stars Head Coach Rick Bowness said of Robertson, the team’s leading goal scorer. “He was exhausted at the end of that shift, and then he saw the breakaway opportunity, and his eyes lit right up, and he found the second wind.”
Hintz has also played well of late, scoring six goals with five assists over the past ten games.
The Stars and Flames faced off three times in the regular season, with Dallas winning the first contest and Calgary taking the second two.
Calgary was 50-21-11 in the 2021-22 season and 23-9-7 at home, where Dallas will play the first two games of the first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series. Johnny Gaudreau had 40 goals and 75 assists for Calgary this season. Dillon Dube has scored eight goals over the past ten games. The Flames finished 6-2-2 in the last ten games, averaging four goals, 6.5 assists, 4.2 penalties, and nine penalty minutes per game while allowing 2.8 goals.
The Flames’ top line of Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, and Elias Lindholm has been an offensive threat since the start of 2021.
Dallas was 5-3-2 in the last 10, averaging 2.3 goals, 4.4 assists, 2.3 penalties, and 5.2 penalty minutes while giving up 2.6 goals per game.
The Stars will rely on second-year goalie Jake Oettinger to handle most of the work between the pipes, as Braden Holtby has been ruled out for the series because of a lower-body injury.
In 2021-22, Oettinger, 23, posted a 30-15-0 record and a goal against average (GAA) of 2.53.
Minding the net for the Flames will be Jacob Markstrom, who started 63 games this season, posted a record of 37-15-0, and had a GAA of 2.22.
Tickets for this year’s Stars playoff games can be purchased here.
The Stars vs. Flames Playoff Schedule:
Game 1 at Calgary
Tuesday, May 3 at 9 p.m. | TV: Sportsnet, CBC, TVA Sports, ESPN2
Game 2 at Calgary
Thursday, May 5 at 9 p.m. | TV: Sportsnet, CBC, TVA Sports, TBS
Game 3 at Dallas
Saturday, May 7 at 8:30 p.m. | TV: TNT, Sportsnet, CBC, TVA Sports
Game 4 at Dallas
Monday, May 9 at 8:30 p.m. | TV: TBS, Sportsnet, CBC, TVA Sports
Game 5 at Calgary*
Wednesday, May 11 at TBD | TV: TBD
Game 6 at Dallas*
Friday, May 13 at TBD | TV: TBD
Game 7 at Calgary*
Sunday, May 15 at TBD | TV: TBD
*Pending record of both teams throughout the series.
