Dallas Stars clinch third seed without Tyler Seguin and Ben Bishop
Deirdre Ann Botts
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The Dallas Stars won their final game in the seeding round beating the reigning Stanley Cup Champions, St. Louis Blues in the shootout. With the 2-1 win, Dallas takes the third seed in the Western Conference and will play the Calgary Flames in first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs to begin next week.
Although the Stars were missing goalie Ben Bishop and Tyler Seguin who were deemed “unfit to play”, they did get defenseman John Klingberg back in time for the final round robin game.
Dallas Stars clinch third seed in West
The Blues opened the scoring less than four minutes into the game when Robert Thomas slapped a wrister home after catching the Stars in a sloppy line change. After several power play chances, the Stars had a goal waived off late in the first and began the second still down by a goal.
The teams traded penalties and several 4 on 4 opportunities but neither Jake Allen or Anton Khudobin let the puck in during the second period. The Stars tying goal by Joe Pavelski came with 31.4 seconds left in the game after Khudobin skated to the bench which allowed an additional skater on the ice.
Stars take it in a shootout
3 on 3 overtime yielded no goals forcing the teams to the shootout. Denis Gurianov was the lone goal scorer in the third round of the shootout sealing the win for the Dallas Stars whose last win was on February 25th before the season was put on pause by the league.
Tyler Seguin and Ben Bishop are day to day
During the post-game, coach Rick Bowness confirmed that Seguin and Bishop are day to day for the first round which is slated to begin early next week. The Stars will need them both if they hope to beat a very tough Flames team.
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