Written by Adam Gretz at CBSSports.com
For the first time in 15 years the St. Louis Blues are on their way back to the Western Conference final.
They reached it Wednesday night thanks to their second Game 7 win of the postseason when the crushed the Dallas Stars 6-1. They will now play the winner of Thursday’s Game 7 between the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators.
Unlike the Blues’ first Game 7 this postseason, a nailbiter against the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks that came down to a matter of inches, Wednesday’s game quickly turned into a rout thanks to three first-period goals.
With the Stars eliminated, it means that none of the NHL’s regular-season division champions (Washington Capitals, Florida Panthers, Anaheim Ducks and Dallas Stars) will play in the conference finals.
We take a look at all of that with seven takeaways from Wednesday’s Game 7 and the series as a whole.
1. The Stars’ goaltending let them down again. This was a fitting end to the Dallas Stars’ season.
Goaltending was their biggest question mark heading into the playoffs, it was their biggest weakness in the playoffs and Wednesday night it was their biggest problem once again. For the seventh time in 13 games the Stars allowed at least four goals in a game, and it was another tag-team effort by their duo in net. After Kari Lehtonen gave up three goals on eight shots in the first period (plus another one that did not count) he was replaced by Antti Niemi who promptly gave up a goal early in the second period to help put the game out of reach.
The second and third goals surrendered by Lehtonen, which came after a bad-angleVladimir Tarasenko goal was disallowed after an offside review, were not exactly great goals for him to give up. Here is a look at the third one with just under four seconds to play in the period.
The Stars entered the postseason with the worst regular-season save percentage of any team in the playoffs. They ended the playoffs at .889. That level of goaltending will not result in a deep run in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
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