Can Jake Oettinger be the Dallas Stars' future in goal?

JAKE OETTINGER FELT INVINCIBLE.

The Dallas Stars were in a Game 7 overtime against the Calgary Flames in the first round of last season's playoffs. They were there because of Oettinger, the second-year goaltender who had stopped 208 of the 218 shots he had faced in the previous six games.

The finale against the Flames was the thrilling capper on a brilliant series: stopping 64 of 66 shots on goal into the first overtime to become the second goalie to make 60 or more saves in a Game 7 since 1995, when the stat was first tracked.

«You're so immersed in what you're doing,» Oettinger recalled. «You feel like you're never going to get scored on.»

Johnny Gaudreau took the 67th shot that Oettinger faced, hurling the puck at the net from an odd angle to the goalie's right. It flew over Oettinger's shoulder and behind him at 15:09 of overtime. Horns blared. Red lights flashed. The Calgary bench emptied. The Stars had been eliminated.

Oettinger couldn't bring himself to watch his historic effort again during the offseason, given the outcome. «I've seen the highlights but I haven't watched the full thing yet,» he said. «If we would have won that game? Yeah, I would have watched it.»

Looking back at the playoffs, Dallas general manager Jim Nill still chuckles at the irony: What some considered to be the Stars' biggest playoff liability turned into their greatest asset.

«When we started the series, probably one of the biggest question marks we had was that we had a young goalie getting his first Stanley Cup playoff action,» Nill said. «This résumé isn't very long. How is he going to handle it? Now we look back on it, and I've never seen a young man enjoy the moment as much as he did. He cherished being in the net.»

Oettinger remained