Stars coach Peter DeBoer under fire for controversial decision in season-ending loss to Oilers

This attempt at a spark fizzled out, and instead, Stars coach Peter DeBoer is now under the microscope.DeBoer shockingly benched starting goalie Jake Oettinger roughly seven minutes into a win-or-go-home Game 5 for Dallas on Thursday night after the Oilers scored two quick goals.The controversial move did not provide the desired result — Jeff Skinner netted a goal less than a minute later against backup Casey DeSmith — and the Stars were ousted from the Western Conference Final in a 6-3 defeat.DeSmith did not galvanize the team in his second appearance of this postseason, and Dallas has now lost in three straight conference finals under DeBoer, including back-to-back years against Edmonton.“I didn’t take that lightly and I didn’t blame it all on Jake,’’ DeBoer said.“But the reality is, if you go back to last year’s playoffs, he’s lost six of seven games to Edmonton, and we gave up two goals on two shots in an elimination game.

So it was partly to spark our team and partly knowing that the status quo had not been working.That’s a pretty big sample size.”Oettinger did not play well entering Game 5 and did little to inspire confidence by yielding two early goals, but pulling your starting goalie less than halfway into a potential elimination game is still a jarring move.Edmonton scored 2:31 and 7:09 into the game to grab a 2-0 edge, although both goals did not fall strictly on his shoulders due to the scores coming on a power play and a breakaway.The goalie stopped just 93 of 109 shots (.853) in the series after posting a save percentage of .909 during the regular season and playing well in series wins over the Avalanche and Jets.Oettinger stopped 90.1 percent of shots in last year’s six-game series loss to Edmonton.“It’s unacceptable for us to hang him out like that,” Stars wing Jason Robertson said regarding Oettinger, per The Athletic.

“The whole playoffs, he’s been our guy, the whole season.Just unacceptable from us.”Make i...