Dallas Become The New Stars Of The NHL
The winning team. Credit: Jason Franson/ The Canadian Press via AP
The Dallas Stars become the first team to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals, beating the Vegas Golden Nights from a two-goal deficit in the third period.
On Monday, September 14th, the Dallas Stars reached an important milestone- for the first time since 2000, the team franchise reached the Stanley Cup Final.
This team overcame a lot of adversity in recent years- from the CEO publicly calling out the team’s star players in 2018, to this December when they fired coach Jim Montgomery for unprofessional conduct. Let’s not forget the heartbreaking Game 7 double overtime loss at the hands of the St. Louis Blues last year.
Nobody would’ve even thought that Dallas would make it this far. Yet, the team always had hope and desire to prove everyone wrong. That they did.
One of the Star players on the team is most definitely Anton Khudobin. He is usually the Star’s backup goalie. However, since Ben Bishop was dealing with a nagging injuryHe handled the offensive attack of the Vegas Golden Knight’s like a pro. He stopped 153 out of 161 shots with a .950 save percentage and a 1.69 GAA ( Goals Against Average). If he continues to ride the goalie high in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Dallas Stars might have an unlikely hero.
Dallas’s strength is not only in their goaltending, but in how well do they adjust to the ever coming changes and win. They weren’t the favorites to win against the powerhouse that is the Colorado Avalanche, yet they managed to steal the win in seven games with a total of 57 goals scored for both teams. This series hasn’t been an offensive series for Dallas, they went on full defense mode against Vegas, who kept them on their toes with their offensive talent. This shows how malleable they are, finding different ways to win every time.
The series saw many talent rise in a timely fashion, like Anton Khudobin, Jamie Benn( who had consistency issues before, but now plays like a man possessed), Alexander Radulov, and Joel Kiviranta, a 24- year old Finish hockey player who clutched Game 7 against the Colorado Avalanche with his first ever hat trick.
Right now Dallas is waiting on the winner of the Tampa Bay Lightning vs. New York Islanders.