Heika’s Take: Stars clinch playoff berth in impressive blowout win over Kraken

The Stars looked like a playoff team on Saturday night.

The timing was perfect, as Dallas became just the third team in the NHL to clinch a berth in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, beating the Seattle Kraken 5-1 at Climate Pledge Arena.

By pushing their record to 48-21-4, the lads in Victory Green have 100 points and are 19 points ahead of ninth place Vancouver with nine games remaining in the regular season.

“It’s nice,” said Stars coach Pete DeBoer. “I never take making the playoffs for granted. It’s a really hard league just to get one of those 16 spots. You always enjoy that, and you never take it for granted, because there’s a lot of work that goes into that.”

Dallas has been having an uneven month, allowing 40-plus shots on goal in each of its previous two wins. So getting back to “Stars” hockey has been a mission this weekend. The Stars are playing two consecutive games in Seattle and will get a day off on Sunday. Because of that, they are working hard to get the details of their game in place. On Saturday, Dallas had an advantage in high danger scoring chances and was basically even on shot attempts. That was a significant improvement.

Seattle started fast, scoring just 1:27 into the game and holding a 6-0 advantage in shots on goal. But the Stars pushed back, had a couple of huge penalty kills, and exited the first period with a 2-1 lead.

DeBoer decided to use an alignment of 11 forwards and seven defensemen instead of the normal 12-6 format. That was partially to help the defense have fresher legs and move the puck out of the back end a little better. A side effect of that was the fact the third line with Sam Steel and Mavrik Bourque had to shuffle wingers, and Jason Robertson scored while taking his shift on the fourth line.

Robertson was left alone in front and tallied his 33rd goal of the season off of assists from Bourque and Steel. It was a moment that highlighted how the Stars can adjust to challenges.

“I didn’t mind it,” DeBoer said of the 11-7 format that allowed veteran defenseman Brendan Smith to get back in the lineup. “We’re going to try some different things down the stretch. We’ve got nine games left, that gave us a chance to get Smith in for the night. He’s been such a good pro.”

Dallas has been without injured defenseman Miro Heiskanen since the end of January and has been giving out extra minutes to players like Thomas Harley. By playing seven defensemen, Harley was able to log just 21:01.

The Stars also went 2-for-5 on the power play, and that was a big factor in the win. Roope Hintz got his 27th goal of the season to give Dallas a 2-1 lead late in the first period. Mason Marchment then added his 19th goal of the season early in the third period on the man advantage, and that basically wrapped up the game. Wyatt Johnston added a really nice individual play to make it 4-1, and then Mikko Rantanen added an empty-netter for the final.

Oettinger finished with 35 saves on 36 shots, Robertson had a goal and an assist, Hintz had a goal and an assist, and Rantanen had a goal and two assists.

“There were a lot of good things. Our game is building. It’s not perfect yet, but a lot of good things done tonight,” DeBoer said. “We’re still taking too many penalties for me, so we’ve got to clean that up. But I thought we had some really good individual performances. I thought Rantanen was outstanding, our best player by far. That line is starting to get some chemistry, it looked dangerous. Wyatt Johnston had another big goal, making it look easy.”

And that’s a good feeling when you know the playoffs are approaching.

“That was a lot better,” Oettinger said. “You work all year [to make the playoffs], now we’re focused on winning the division.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.