Gaudreau the hero as Flames advance past Stars

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At times during Sunday's winner-take-all Game 7, it felt like the Calgary Flames would never again solve Jake Oettinger. 

The Dallas Stars goalie, who asserted himself to the hockey world during this series as perhaps the National Hockey League’s future perennial Vezina Trophy contender, stymied the Flames through the game’s opening sixty minutes, only surrendering goals on a Tyler Toffoli tip-in and a Matthew Tkachuk power-play goal. 

The Flames fired over 130 shots his way. He stopped 65 of 67 that made their way through Dallas’ stingy defence. Then Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau had the puck at the side of the net and fired a perfect shot over Oettinger’s left shoulder, sending the Saddledome into a frenzy after the 3-2 Game 7 overtime victory.

“It was awesome,” Gaudreau said. “It was a tight series this whole week or two and it came right down to the end there in Game 7 overtime. You dream of stuff like that, scoring in Game 7 in overtime. Nice play by [Tkachuk] behind the net, found [Lindholm] in the front, and I got the rebound…I was just trying to put it on net.”

“I was actually ducking because I knew if he missed, I was right in the line of fire,” Tkachuk said.

During the seven game series, Gaudreau fired 25 shots on Oettinger, including a chance in the slot moments before his game winner. Previously, Gaudreau admitted he felt Oettinger had his number.

“That kid played pretty well throughout the whole series,” Gaudreau said.

Despite Oettinger’s play, the Flames controlled the game in almost every way on Sunday. They had more than double the shot attempts as the Stars. Calgary out hit them 35 to 22 and won 55 per cent of the faceoffs. Despite dominating on paper, it was not an easy few days.

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