It shouldn’t have gotten to overtime, never mind double overtime.
For a two-period stretch in regulation the St. Louis Blues outshot the Dallas Stars 31-4 in Game 7 of their second-round series on Tuesday. But on the back of Ben Bishop, the Stars pushed through to force the extra frames, getting more scoring opportunities in the first overtime than they had in periods two and three combined.
And just when it looked like the unforgiving hockey gods would wickedly reward the road team, the Blues struck quickly and suddenly off the draw, an area where they had been struggling. Pat Maroon played the part of hometown hero, sending the Blues to the conference final for the first time since 2016.
Will that be a rematch against the San Jose Sharks, or a showdown with the Cinderella Colorado Avalanche? That will be determined Wednesday night. Until then, here’s what we saw as St. Louis ended Dallas’ season in Round 2.
PAT MAROON IS IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME
One of the more emotional post-game interviews in recent memory was Gene Principe talking with Maroon when the latter was a member of the Edmonton Oilers in 2016. It was a mid-December game, just before Christmas, and Edmonton was on a road trip through Maroon’s hometown of St. Louis. The power forward scored a big goal in the game to send it to overtime and his son was in the crowd, beaming with pride.
When Maroon saw his son’s reaction during the interview he got choked up. The sight of it pulls at your heartstrings and put in perspective the human element behind the scenes of the life of an NHLer.
As a UFA this past summer, Maroon had a contract worth more money on the table than what the Blues were offering, but decided to take the one-year, $1.75-million deal offered to him by St. Louis to prove to the league he was worth more, and to stay close to his family.
“Not only is this for my son, but I’m betting on myself,” he told ESPN.[sidebar]
Though Maroon didn’t play a prominent role throughout Game 7 — seven other Blues forwards had more ice time — he was front and centre for both of his team’s goals. On the first, he muscled his six-foot-three, 225-pound frame to the front of the net and screened Ben Bishop from Vince Dunn’s shot. On the second, he crashed the net and cleaned up the leftovers from Robert Thomas’ shot that hit the post.
While there were a number of rush chances all night and some stupendous saves from both goalies, it was Maroon’s hard-nosed presence that caused the necessary disturbances at the most opportune times.
In every way, he’s where he should be right now. He called this one the biggest goal of his career.
“It’s been an emotional roller-coaster for me all year,” Maroon said. “To score a big goal like that in front of my hometown, my son was in the stands, fiancee, friends, family.”
You have to root for the guy.
REMEMBER ROOPE
On Dallas’ side, Miro Heiskanen garnered a lot of praise for his reliability as a 19-year-old, big-minute, rookie defenceman. Ben Bishop is a Vezina Trophy finalist and just had one of the better Game 7 performances ever, stopping 52 pucks.
But if someone on the Stars really announced himself as a playoff performer, it was Roope (pronounced rope, eh?) Hintz.
In Game 6, Hintz blocked a shot with his left foot and left the arena in a walking boot. There was some question whether he’d play at all in Game 7 because of it, but he was out there, buzzing all over the place in his 23:35 of ice time.
Hintz led all Stars forwards with three blocked shots, all of which were blistering and cringe-inducing knowing what he just went through two days ago. He was also one of their more ferocious forecheckers all night and seemed like the fastest skater on the ice.
The 22-year-old’s rookie season really flew under the radar with Heiskanen sharing the same roster. Starting in October with 10 or 11 minutes a night, Hintz levelled up to a second line centre who regularly saw 16 to 18 minutes down the stretch. Seventeen of his 22 points came in his final 30 games and he added another eight in 13 playoff games. In Game 7, he mostly shared a line with Alexander Radulov and Jamie Benn.
Kelly Hrudey hit the nail on the head when talking about Hintz on the Sportsnet broadcast. We’ll be talking about this kid for the next 12 to 15 years.
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BEST PLAYERS NOT SCORING? LET THE KIDS TAKE OVER
Ryan O’Reilly hasn’t scored since Game 5 of the Winnipeg series. Brayden Schenn has been shutout just as long. Vladimir Tarasenko has one even-strength goal all playoffs.
You’d think a Game 7 win meant at least one of these players stood up, but you have to look a little further down the depth chart to find the engines of this win.
Vince Dunn, the 22-year-old defenceman, was silky in regulation, showing us his puck-moving strengths with zone-exit carries and crisp passes on the regular. He scored the game’s first goal, too, using Maroon’s screen and, crucially, hitting the net on the other side.
And though 19-year-old Robert Thomas only had two shots on the score sheet, it seemed like he was much more involved than that. His play led to Maroon’s overtime marker (and he nearly scored on it himself).
Sammy Blais, the 22-year-old winger, also deserves commendation here. He didn’t get a point, but led all players with eight hits, a few of which caught Benn in the wrong place, leaving the Stars power forward in obvious discomfort.
The Blues controlled the play through most of this game so only two players, Carl Gunnarsson and Tyler Bozak, were on the ice for more shots against than shots for. But Dunn, Thomas and Blais had the three best five-on-five shot differentials among all Blues. St. Louis controlled at least 70 per cent of the even-strength shots when at least one of them were on the ice.
MISSED IT BY THAT MUCH
Had the Stars won this game, it would have been an undeserving victory given how decisively they were outplayed. And, sure, the Blues had ample opportunity to put this game away long before this moment — but we have to highlight just how close Dallas came to a Western Conference final berth.
After already nearly being beaten on a Hintz wraparound earlier in the game, Jordan Binnington was slow to the post when Benn tried it in overtime. Had the Star been able to tuck it around a tad tighter, hitting the bottom of Binnington’s pad instead of the top, this game would have ended with a different result.
If the Stars end up losing, Jamie Benn is going to have nightmares about this all offseason long. pic.twitter.com/4RcAxXXMdY
— Scott Bell (@ScottBellDMN) May 8, 2019
DON’T LET YOUR KID BE A GOALIE
Take it from Ben Bishop’s mom — it’s hard to watch.
https://twitter.com/hemjhaveri/status/1125953095131856896
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