DALLAS -- Goaltender Jake Oettinger didn’t last eight minutes in the final game of the Dallas Stars' season.
Oettinger was pulled at 7:09 of the first period after allowing goals on the first two shots from the Edmonton Oilers in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final at American Airlines Center on Thursday.
The Oilers went on to win the game 6-3 and the best-of-7 series 4-1, advancing to a rematch with the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final, which starts on Wednesday in Edmonton (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MAX).
It’s the second straight season Dallas has lost to Edmonton in the conference final, losing in six games last season, and the third straight seasn the Stars have been eliminated in this round.
Oettinger has been the goalie in each of those series.
On Thursday, he was the sacrificial lamb for another horrendous start in a series full of them for the Stars.
“Anytime you pull a goalie, the reasoning is always to try and spark your group, so that was the No. 1 reason,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “We had talked endlessly in this series about trying to play with a lead. And obviously we’re in a 2-0 hole right away. And you know what, I didn’t take that lightly and I didn’t blame it all on Jake.”
DeBoer did say the past informed his decision.
Oettinger was 1-3 in the first four games of the series with a 3.55 goals-against average and a .869 save percentage.
Last season, the Stars took a 2-1 series lead on Edmonton and then lost three straight games. During that stretch, Oettinger allowed nine goals on 64 shots.
“The reality is, if you go back to last year’s playoffs, he’s lost six of seven games to Edmonton and we gave up two [goals] on two [shots] in an elimination game.
“It was partly to spark our team and wake them up and partly knowing that status quo had not been working. And that’s a pretty big sample size.”
