Dallas Stars beat Calgary Flames evening the series

In just his second playoff start, Jake Oettinger earned a shutout for the Dallas Stars in a 2-0 win over the Calgary Flames on Thursday, tying the series at 1-1.

In a sea of red at the sold-out Saddledome, the 23-year-old Oettinger of Lakeville, Minn., stopped all 29 shots he faced.

“Winning is the only thing that matters. On the other end, they have a tremendous goalie, and we know it’ll be close, so my margin for mistake is really small,” Oettinger said.

For the Stars, Joe Pavelski scored twice and Michael Raffl added an empty-net goal in the best-of-seven conference quarterfinal series at American Airlines Center on Saturday and Monday.

“Our aim was to win two games in Dallas anyhow, so that doesn’t really change our attitude,” Flames forward Tyler Toffoli said.

Calgary won the first game of the series 1-0 on Tuesday, and Game 2 was another defensive fight. In the loss on Thursday, Calgary’s Jacob Markstrom stopped 21 of 22 shots.

Calgary (50-21-11) won the Pacific Division, while Dallas (46-30-6) earned the Western Conference’s top wild-card seed.

In the third period, the Flames outshot the Stars 12-7, but Dallas didn’t give up any chances from close range.

With 69 seconds left in the game, Raffl scored into an empty net after Markstrom was withdrawn for an additional attacker.

“I believe our best guys had a lot (of shots) from the outside,” Flames head Coach Darryl Sutter stated.

“They need to be closer to the goalie.”

Calgary, which had been outplayed in the first period, had more offence and an 11-7 shot advantage in the second.

The Flames, on the other hand, were denied by Oettinger and were unable to capitalize on the few rebounds that the Dallas goaltender allowed.

“They have a strong defensive unit.” Flames player Johnny Gaudreau stated, “I thought we had plenty of scoring chances tonight.”

“Their goalkeeper did an excellent job. We did a nice job in their own zone, but we need to score, so I’m going to bear down and put the puck in the net (beginning) with myself.”

Stars head coach Rick Bowness kept forwards Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin on separate lines in the second and third periods of Game 1 in order to produce more offence.

“There’s not much space out there,” Bowness added. “Neither they nor we have much room. Everything you acquire has to be earned.”

Dallas had 25 hits in the opening 40 minutes, compared to 20 in Game 1 for a total of 36. To the Stars’ eight, the Flames had 21 giveaways.

In the first period, the visitors outshot the Flames 9-6 and improved their forecheck to stall Calgary’s exit from its own zone.

Pavelski scored the first goal of the series for the Stars at 7:47 of the first period on a defensive-zone error by the Flames, after going without a shot in Game 1.

Noah Hanifin deflected the ball off the boards and onto Jason Robertson’s stick inside the blue line. Robertson’s shot was deflected over Markstrom’s glove by Pavelski.

A Gaudreau breakaway goal was called off for offside 43 seconds after puck drop.

Matthew Tkachuk of Calgary and John Klingberg of the Stars rekindled their rivalry from the first game, when Tkachuk smashed Klingberg into the boards behind Calgary’s net late in the first period.

Following Gaudreau’s disallowed goal, Tkachuk cross-checked Klingberg, who received a roughing penalty, to send both men to the box.

The Stars were held scoreless on two power-play opportunities and went 0-for-7 in the series’ first two games.

The Flames went 0-for-3 on Thursday and have only scored once in their first two games with the man advantage.