WASHINGTON — In the third period of the Stars’ 3-2 win over the Capitals on Sunday night, Jake Oettinger dispatched his stick and launched himself to his right. He sprung off his left foot directly into John Carlson’s oncoming one-timer, catching the puck with his right shoulder and preserving a Dallas win.
Just another day for the Stars’ No. 1 goaltender.
“I haven’t really seen it yet, but I kind of got tied up so I just tried to get everything I could over there and thankfully it hit me,” Oettinger said.
“He’s been really good and that one save he did there, it could have been 3-3 and he made that kind of save,” Stars forward Roope Hintz said. “It’s huge for us.”
Oettinger made 36 saves (13 in the third period) for the Stars, backstopping Dallas to its first regulation win in two weeks and capping a four-game road trip with a 2-2-0 record. Hintz scored twice on the power play for the Stars, who also received a goal from Alexander Radulov.
The Stars are now one point behind Vegas for the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference with three games in hand on the Golden Knights. Dallas returns home for one game, a Tuesday tilt with Edmonton.
For the last two months, Oettinger has been charged with keeping the Stars in the playoff hunt. Sunday was his 18th start in the last 20 games, and the second time he played both ends of a back-to-back. He’s taken over the team’s starting role, and ticked off milestones along the way.
He had a coming out party by making 46 saves in Colorado against the best team in the league. He outdueled his idol in Chicago to post his second career shutout. He won his first start back home in Minnesota earlier this month.
Now, he’s doing it with little margin for error.
Braden Holtby missed his fifth straight game with a lower-body injury. With Ben Bishop’s career over (knee injury) and Anton Khudobin’s season over (hip surgery), Oettinger is currently being backed up by Adam Scheel. Scheel is in his first year of professional hockey and has never played an NHL game.
Before the game, Bowness said Holtby remains day-to-day, but he has not skated since practice on Wednesday in Montreal. Holtby did not complete practice sessions Monday in Frisco, Tuesday in Toronto or Wednesday in Montreal, leaving early each time.
Add in the tight games that the Stars are usually involved in, and the typically low-scoring offensive outputs by Dallas and, well, there’s not much wiggle room.
“There’s no room,” Stars coach Rick Bowness said.
On Saturday night, Bowness approached Oettinger to tell him he was starting the game on Sunday in Washington.
“I said ‘Jake, you’re going. But if you feel any bit of fatigue, you look me in the eye and you tell me,’” Bowness said. “He said ‘Nope, I’ll be ready to go, coach.’ And he was ready to go.”
Oettinger said: “This is what I want. I want to be playing every game. Backing up is no fun. Like I said earlier, I have a great opportunity in front of me and hopefully, I can just keep being a difference-maker for this team and come up with big stops at the right time.”
The opportunity to give Oettinger some breathing room arrives on Monday, with the NHL trade deadline at 2 p.m.
After Sunday’s win over the Capitals, the Stars (34-24-3) have 21 games left in the regular season. They have a two-day break between games just twice through the end of April. Oettinger will be leaned on heavily, but the Stars can’t solely ride Oettinger for four straight months — the last two and the next two.
The Stars currently have $50,000 in cap space, but can create some room by removing players from the active roster. Andrej Sekera cleared waivers and can be assigned to AHL affiliate Texas, burying $1.125 million of his $1.5 million cap hit. The Stars can send Scheel down to create $925,000 of space.
If Scheel has to remain in the NHL due to Holtby’s injury situation, the Stars can temporarily use long-term injured reserve to create space.
If the Stars placed Miro Heiskanen ($8.45 million cap hit) on LTIR, he would have to miss the next two games to fulfill the 10-game and 24-day LTIR minimums. If Holtby ($2 million cap hit) goes on LTIR, he would have to miss the next three games.
The Stars’ decision to add a goaltender on Monday centers around Holtby
How healthy is he? When can he make his return? How will he play when he returns? How much can the Stars trust that he won’t get hurt again? Plus, how much of an upgrade can a cheap option like Scott Wedgewood, Anton Forsberg or Craig Anderson be over the Stars’ current situation in the crease?
Until the Stars find answers, they will ride Oettinger.
“He’s been really good, he’s been really good,” Stars forward Joe Pavelski said. “He’s done his job. He’s given us a chance, he’s made some key saves throughout a night.”
Harley out: Stars defenseman Thomas Harley was a healthy scratch on Sunday night, and Joel Hanley re-entered the lineup on the third pairing.
“Too many goals against,” Bowness said. “If you’re offsetting that with offense, OK, you can live with it. But if you’re not putting any offense on the wall and you’re responsible for chances and goals against, we’ve got to fix it.”
Harley, a 20-year-old offensive defenseman, played the previous 15 games for the Stars.
“The biggest thing for a young player is learning how to play the intensity up here,” Bowness said. “That’s all it is for him. It’s not his skillset, it’s not his mind. It’s the intensity in which you play the game up here, especially this time of year.
“You can’t get pushed off pucks and give up goals. You’ve got to get back and move the puck, can’t turn it over. Those are details. Can he do those things? Absolutely. Does he have to raise his intensity to do those things? Yes.”
