Breaking Down Stars-Kraken Game 5
A trip to the Western Conference final can be earned in Game 6
Sometimes you have to stop and acknowledge the obvious.
The Stars top line delivered in a 5-2 Game 5 victory, giving Dallas a 3-2 series lead.
In a series that has been all about depth scoring, the Stars clear advantage can — and was isn Game 5 — the fact they have an all-world top line, which combined for three goals.
Roope Hintz scored twice, Joe Pavelski scored his seventh goal of the series, and Jason Robertson had a trio of assists, answering some questions about his lack of even strength production this series.
Hintz speed made a fast Seattle team look slow at times, an impressive feat. Robertson, like Pavelski, acted like an air traffic director for Hintz, manipulating space and setting up launching pads for the speedy Finnish forward.
Even on plays in the offensive zone, the Stars built on Hintz’ speed, allowing him to go on solo cycle from low-to-high and back again, which created busted seems in the Kraken defense.
Robertson and Pavelski filled in well in the seems, which helped lead to one goal and nearly set up another for Robertson.
When that line was on the ice the Stars had a 5-1 edge in high-danger chances according to NaturalStatTrick.
In totality, the Kraken only had 5 high-danger chances all game at even strength. The Kraken are a deep team, they are annoying. But they don’t have the star power and historically we’ve learned, you need that if you are going to win the whole thing.
Here are some other observations on things I found interesting from Game 5.
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