Jake Oettingers success with Stars rooted in Minnesota: Family is everything

LAKEVILLE, Minn. — At 11:30 a.m. on Aug. 3, Schmitz-Maki Arena was a ghost town. Aside from a few cars scattered in the parking lot and a pickup truck parked outside the building facing Spruce St., there wasn’t much going on. Just inside the entrance, an older gentleman sat, bewildered as to what a reporter from Dallas was doing exploring a vacant rink in Farmington, Minn.

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As he listened to the explanation of how this was the arena where a young Jake Oettinger planted the roots of his passion for hockey, a soft smile hijacked his face.

“What a great kid he is, isn’t he?” the man said. “We love Jake. Is he with you?”

Oettinger, who lives about 15 minutes away during the summers in his childhood home, wasn’t there. He was out finishing up his morning offseason workout routine in Golden Valley. His imprints, though, were inside. A long line of banners hung across the ice, including the ones Oettinger helped raise as a kid on his bantam teams before he transferred to Lakeville North early in his high school career.

Those performances at Schmitz-Maki Arena in Farmington and Ames Arena in Lakeville captivated members of the tight-knit community Oettinger grew up in. But Oettinger’s vision was always planted 25 miles north at Xcel Energy Center, home of the Minnesota Wild. His goal was to get the attention of the hockey world at large. Thursday night, Oettinger did just that.

The day before the Stars were scheduled to play the Wild, they had a practice in Minnesota. Former longtime Wild defenseman, Ryan Suter proposed the team take advantage of a rare mix of geography and climate cooperating and skate outdoors. Stars head coach Pete DeBoer obliged and the team spent Wednesday’s practice at Phalen Park.

“Everyone in here is like a 10-year-old at heart anyways,” Oettinger said. “So, for us to be able to go out there and have fun is awesome. We would have stayed out there all day if we could.”

Part of Oettinger’s joy on Wednesday came from his 8-year-old brother, Thomas, being able to join him on the ice. When Oettinger’s professional duties for the day were done, he shifted gears.

“He was at the house yesterday, playing Xbox with Thomas and went to his three-on-three game yesterday afternoon on his off (time),” Jake’s father, Chris Oettinger, told The Athletic. “That’s the kind of stuff that makes it so great.”

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Hockey and family have always been a package deal for Oettinger. In August, Oettinger was training for the upcoming season. On Aug. 4, he set aside a day for an annual family tradition. Oettinger and his girlfriend, Kennedi Schumacher, took Thomas and Oettinger’s little sister, 10-year-old Kendall, out for a day of fun, as dictated by the kids. This year, the highlight was a game of laser tag at the Mall of America in Bloomington.

“My little siblings are two of my favorite people in the whole world,” Oettinger told The Athletic in August. “My life is going a million miles an hour. It’s nice to be able to take them one-on-one. That’s when you really get to see their personalities. It’s important to us to be able to hang out with them one-on-one, spoil them for a day and do all of the things they want to do. It’s special. They look forward to it, and we do too.

“Kendall is more shopping. She loves going to the mall and getting new clothes and hanging out and getting ice cream. Thomas is more kind of wanting to play laser tag and football and buy gift cards for video games. They’re very different but both are super fun.”

When Oettinger goes home for the summer, he stays in the basement. There is a spacey living area, with couches and a television, just outside his bedroom. Off to the side, just in front of where the stairs begin, there’s a makeshift arena. That’s reserved for playing knee-hockey with Thomas.

Oettinger, who recently turned 24, doesn’t have a complicated lifestyle. His priorities mostly revolve around family, hockey and golf. That holds true in the thick of the offseason or even after what was arguably Oettinger’s biggest win to date when Oettinger helped Dallas win Game 6 at home against the Flames to force a Game 7 in Calgary in the playoffs last spring.

“The things that you don’t see are after that Game 6, we didn’t go out,” Chris said. “He came back to the apartment and we all just hung out. That’s kind of who he is. He wanted to be with us and hang out with us. That’s the coolest part about it.”

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For the Stars games the family is unable to attend, they gather in the living room to watch. On school nights, Thomas and Kendall usually only get to see the first two periods before bedtime. Chris has a consistent game day routine, including a call from Jake after morning skate and a phone call after the game.

“Family is everything to me,” Oettinger said. “They’re the reason I’ve got to where I am right now. Now even more, when you get to the level that you’re at, it’s important to have a team behind you that supports you no matter what … My dad, my mom, my stepmom, all of my siblings; they’re the reason I do what I do. I want to make them proud.

“There’s nothing like playing a great game and having them there and getting to see them afterwards. I feel like the luckiest guy in the world. It’s one of the biggest blessings of my life.”

Thursday night wasn’t Oettinger’s first NHL start at Xcel Energy Center. Last season in March, Oettinger stopped 32 of 35 shots in a 6-3 Stars victory. But Thursday’s game held a different gravitas.

Oettinger came in established as one of the top goaltenders in the NHL. He faced a team in the Wild that had won their last seven games at home, and seven of their last eight games overall. Though the Stars lead the division, the Wild are not far behind.

In the opposing crease, Oettinger faced Marc-Andre Fleury, a future Hall of Famer and somebody Oettinger looked up to growing up. Oettinger’s first gift from his stepmom, Kelly, was a Fleury Fathead that hung in his room through his teenage years. Last season, Oettinger asked for and received a stick from Fleury when the two faced off in Chicago in February. Oettinger wears No. 29 because of Fleury.

“Sometimes, (it’s) tough to believe that I’ve been around this long,” Fleury said.

Oettinger has always been wired to rise to the occasion. As a 15-year-old, when Oettinger crossed allegiances over from Farmington to rival Lakeville North, his friends from Farmington, including his older brother, joined forces to boo him when the two teams met in the regional finals. Oettinger basked in it, then went on to post a 25-save shutout to advance his team to the state tournament. He remembers it as “one of my favorite games” for the hostility that came with it.

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Eight years later, a 23-year-old Oettinger manned the net in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in his professional career. Through the first six games of the series against the Flames, Oettinger was phenomenal, including a 29-save shutout performance in Game 2 and a 50-save outing in Game 4. But the most daunting task came when the series shifted to Calgary for Game 7. Oettinger entered the hostile environment of the Saddledome and stared down arguably the best line in the NHL. He went on to have one of the great postseason performances of all time, a 64-save odyssey that required an impossible shot from a ridiculous angle by an elite player to beat Oettinger in overtime.

“He lives every day and it’s almost like a badge or a chip on his shoulder that nothing is given to you,” Chris said. “It has to be earned.”

Oettinger doesn’t have to live with a chip on his shoulder. He comes from the State of Hockey. He’s genetically blessed with the size and frame to fill the net. He’s not an NHL underdog story, with the Stars trading up to get him in the first round of the 2017 draft.

But Oettinger revels in the villain role.

He’d rather get blitzed with shots on goal to stay active in a game. The higher the shot volume gets, the sassier the saves become in spitting them back. While Oettinger appreciates the support of the home crowd, he finds greater joy in going into the belly of the beast and shutting down opposing teams and silencing their fans. His .942 save percentage on the road is No. 1 this season in the NHL.

Like Johnny Gaudreau’s overtime shot in Calgary in Game 7, Thursday night took an elite player in Kirill Kaprizov firing from a tough angle to beat Oettinger.

“I just kind of showed my hand and thought he was passing,” Oettinger said. “I didn’t know he was a threat from behind the net. Now I know that.”

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Oettinger got some fortunate support throughout the night from the posts but he was great in his own right. He filled the cage well and moved efficiently in the crease.

“He’s a rock back there for us,” DeBoer said. “I know this was an important one for him in front of friends and family, and I think the guys played hard knowing that.”

Xcel Energy Center had plenty of support for Oettinger. The bulk of the contingent, including his dad, stepmom and siblings, sat in a suite behind the home net but others were scattered throughout.

Oettinger was locked in as he saved 24 of the 25 shots he faced in the 4-1 win, including some critical ones down the stretch. His idol, who had become his rival for the evening, was impressed.

“He’s awesome,” Fleury, said. “A big guy that still moves around well. He’s calm. He covers a lot of the net and plays well around his post. A young goalie. I think we’ll see him for many years and there will be lots of wins.”

In less than three complete seasons, Oettinger has racked up 57 wins, including two in the arena he grew up visiting to watch NHL games. Now, he’s playing in that arena and putting on a show. While the hockey world watches him in amazement, Oettinger’s eyes remain set on what they’ve always been focused on.

“I think my favorite part of the whole night was, at the end of the game, and the game was great, he did all of the team hugs with all of the players,” Chris said. “He knew where we were sitting. He just gave us a big high-five. Just from those types of experiences, it shows you how happy and how proud he is to have everybody there supporting him.”

Scoring distribution

1A (Robertson) — 1A (Hintz) — Pavelski
1G (Benn) — 1G1A (Johnston) — Marchment
Kiviranta — Dellandrea — 2G (Seguin)
Olofsson — Faksa — Glendening

1A (Heiskanen) — 1A (Lundkvist)
Lindell — Hakanpaa
1A (Suter) — Miller

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.960 save percentage (Oettinger)

Scoring plays

Instead of three non-scoring plays, these are the three non-empty net goals that the Stars scored in their win over the Wild. Spoiler alert: They were all tipped shots with a rotating cast of characters.

Tyler Seguin

The Stars’ second power-play unit is starting to show up in a bigger way. The top unit has had a lot of consistency all season in its personnel, and for the most part, in the results. In breaking down the power play last week, we identified the reasons for the top unit’s success. Players play interchangeable roles and know how and when to get to their spots. It usually calls for three guys on the perimeter and two camping out in front of the net.

The second unit executed that in the first period when Tyler Seguin and Radek Faksa got down low while Suter, Wyatt Johnston and Nils Lundkvist worked the perimeter. Suter’s shot got through the first layer and Seguin got his stick on it.

Seguin also scored the empty-netter late in the third period.

Wyatt Johnston

When you live with Joe Pavelski, learning how to tip pucks just comes from osmosis. Johnston got just enough of his stick in traffic to alter the puck’s path from Lundkvist’s shot.

The scoresheet reads as Johnston’s goal from Lundkvist and Miro Heiskanen. That’s the Stars’ 23-year-old defenseman to the 22-year-old defenseman, finishing with the 19-year-old forward. If Logan Stankoven lighting up the world juniors wasn’t enough to inject excitement for the future of the franchise, that goal served as a reminder as well.

Jamie Benn

The Stars obliterated the Wild in the faceoff circle, winning 70.3 percent of the draws. As Wild head coach Dean Evason pointed out after the game, it wasn’t just because of the action in the circle but also the aggressiveness around it. For the Stars’ third goal, Jamie Benn won the power-play draw. Once again, the Stars stacked the net with two players, this time Benn and Pavelski. Arguably the most impressive part of this score was Robertson’s patience with the puck at the point which allowed him to rip it through traffic and deflect in off Benn.

(Photo: Glenn James / NHLI via Getty Images)

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