Kraken’s postseason run ends with Game 7 loss to Stars

DALLAS – There were signs the Kraken’s magical playoff ride was running on fumes throughout Monday night’s Game 7 .

They could win this game against the Dallas Stars in the last game of the best-of-seven NHL Western Conference semifinal … or wake up and start booking tee times.

The Kraken lost 2-1 and the

weary postgame eyes of Yanni Gourde, Jordan Eberle and Philipp Grubauer indicated they’d left everything on the ice.

As they trudged one-by-one, to and from their lockers after being eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Kraken insisted this wasn’t the end of this hockey ride in Seattle, merely a beginning.

“You get a taste of a postseason series here as a group and you win a series and almost win another one, I think you just grow,” said Eberle, who scored a team-high five goals in the series. “Obviously, you remember how this feels. This is a tough league to win in. It’s a tough trophy to win. But I think we have the foundation and the group here and we just want to keep building.”

Dallas advances to the Western Conference final, starting Friday against the Vegas Golden Knights.

For the Kraken, their playoffs effectively ended with an impressive Game 6 victory in front of a fired-up Climate Pledge Arena crowd that kept them alive for another trip back here. Midway through this final contest in front of some nervous-sounding American Airlines Center fans, it was clear the Kraken needed every ounce of remaining energy just to stay in a game in which they were badly outplayed .

The Kraken were running around in circles in their own end, relying on Grubauer’s acrobatics in net to keep things scoreless and failing to generate any sustained offense. Finally, a late second-period giveaway near his own blue line by defenseman Jamie Oleksiak – so solid throughout the series – enabled Roope Hintz to streak in alone down the right side and beat Grubauer with a high wrist shot to his blocker side to open the scoring.

The Stars haven’t lost this postseason when scoring first and Hintz’s goal loomed as decisive by intermission despite there being a full period to play. The Kraken by the third didn’t register a shot on Stars netminder Jake Oettinger until well beyond the six-minute mark, unable to test a goalie who’d struggled all series and was pulled early twice.

They had just two shots through nearly 13 minutes of the period by the time Wyatt Johnston chased after a puck dumped deep in the Kraken’s end, played it off the end boards and deked Grubauer up high.

That 2-0 lead was effectively the game, even though Oliver Bjorkstrand snapped Oettinger’s shutout bid with 18 seconds to play. The Kraken pulled Grubauer for an extra attacker, but it was too late for any real crack at tying things.

“We pushed as hard as we could push tonight,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “And you know, we couldn’t find our top gear.”

And that’s the taxing toll consecutive seven-game series will often take on a team, especially a Kraken squad that struggled at times during a 100-point regular season to maintain their relentless, physical system of play. That lack of energy at times caused the Kraken in this game to turn the puck over or fail to clear it from their own end.

“When you’re not efficient with the puck and you can’t get up ice, all of a sudden you’re chasing,” Hakstol said. “Because you don’t have any pace to enter the zone, you don’t have any pace to your forecheck where you need numbers and speed especially against a team that breaks out as well as Dallas does.”

Despite a 40-point jump from their finish a year prior, their sophomore franchise season will best be remembered for this monthlong playoff run that lasted the maximum 14 games over two rounds. They managed to eliminate the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche in an opening-round Game 7 in Denver and appeared to be following a similar script the way this decisive contest began.

After an early scoring chance for Alex Wennberg sailed wide off a Jaden Schwartz pass, the Kraken, just as in Game 7 in Colorado, were swarmed over by Dallas the remainder of the period with only Grubauer and shot-blocking defenders keeping things close.

Those defenders managed to block six shots on one Dallas power play in which the Kraken failed to get the puck out of their end for the entire two minutes. But it was with his own team on the power play – and performing poorly – that Grubauer was at his best, first denying Hintz on a 30-foot wrist shot, then immediately stopping Luke Glendening on a quick backhander.

The Kraken somehow escaped that period but continued to be blitzed by the Stars from all corners in the second.

“They answered the game that we played in Game 6,” Hakstol said of the Stars. “They came home into their own building and put us under pressure. And as we got into that second period, that’s where they tilted the game in their direction.”

The Stars especially poured on the energy the latter half of the period, and again only Grubauer kept things scoreless.

Tyler Seguin got in alone, but Grubauer stopped him. Minutes later, he snagged a Hintz wrist shot from point blank range. But fresh off that near miss, Hintz went to the blocker side for the goal that seemed to swing the game decisively.

“I don’t think we came out as good as we did in Game 6,” Grubauer said. “But we found a way to battle … I’m really proud of this group and how we played the whole season and the playoffs. It’s a tough pill to swallow for sure.”

But even in swallowing it, as the disheartened youngsters and especially veterans with limited playoff chances remaining all had to do, there could be solace taken that they gave everything they could muster.

Even if there wasn’t enough left.

“I’m super proud of these guys,” said Gourde, who drew an assist on Bjorkstrand’s final Kraken goal of the season. “They battled hard the whole year and every time we stepped up and we never quit. Young guys stepped up, older guys stepped up. We all did.”