Two minutes and 58 seconds into the overtime period on Thursday night, Dallas Stars center Cody Eakin became the unlikely Game 4 hero, putting the his first goal of the 2016 playoffs in past the shoulder of Blues goaltender Brian Elliott to give the Stars the 3-2 overtime victory.
With that goal, the Stars avenged an embarrassing loss in Game 3 and, more importantly, pulled even in the series going back home to Dallas for Game 5. It was also the team’s first overtime victory of the 2016 playoffs.
“It’s a big goal, it’s a big overtime,” Patrick Sharp, who provided the assist on Eakin’s game-winner, told the team’s official website. “We’ve had a couple in this playoff run we didn’t get the result we wanted. We were confident, we were comfortable, we were excited about the opportunity we could win a game and go back to Dallas.”
Game 5 is set for Saturday afternoon at the American Airlines Center.
“That’s the nice thing about finishing first, we’ve got home-court advantage back,” Eakin said. “It’s a race to two [wins], and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
