DALLAS (AP) — Dallas Stars coach Pete DeBoer had so many emotions to process after a Game 7 victory over his former team.
There were those mixed feelings still from last year, when the Vegas Golden Knights beat Dallas in the Western Conference Final and that team for which he had such a great affection went on to win its first Stanley Cup. And there was just the tremendous joy of getting past them in his second postseason chance with the Stars.
“Obviously, really wanted to win this series. I mean, we wanted our turn,” DeBoer said after the series-ending 2-1 victory Sunday night. “We felt we did all the right things all year in order to get the first seed. And then you draw a team like Vegas, which I honestly think they’ve got a deeper team than they had last year. And to plow through the adversity of being down 2-0, there’s a lot there to unpack.”
After losing those first two games at home, the Stars came back to win a tight series. Both teams scored 16 goals, and the margin was never more than two goals at any point.
“I don’t think either team could sit here and say they were dominating the series, or were truly at their best the whole time,” said Bruce Cassidy, who two years ago replaced DeBoer as the Vegas coach. “I don’t think you saw either team truly get to its max. But some of that credit has to go to the opposition.”
The Stars now have a quick turnaround, though they get to stay home. Game 1 of their second-round series against Colorado is Tuesday night, a week after the Avalanche wrapped up their opening round with a Game 5 win over Winnipeg.
Vegas, which had 22 players back from its Cup-winning roster, goes into an offseason wondering what could have been without all of the injuries during the season. While the group was together at the end, captain Mark Stone didn't even play until the postseason with three trade-deadline acquisitions that may not have able to get if he hadn't been on the long-term injured reserve.
“We came out of the gate really well, our full team was together and then the adversity kind of kicked in. We had nine guys have surgery this year. Nine guys ... two of them internal surgeries," Cassidy said. “It takes a while to get back up to speed. That would be the unfortunate part. They came and did get healthy enough for the playoffs. That was the positive, and now you are trying to get a team up to speed in a hurry."
Stone lacerated his spleen Feb. 20 and didn't return to full-contact practice until two days before the series opener. Alex Pietrangelo had a non-COVID illness in late March, then had an appendectomy. Chandler Stephenson and William Carrier also missed games late in the season.
“I don’t think anyone in this room thought we weren’t going to have an opportunity to win,” Pietrangelo said.
“I really thought we could have done some damage going forward. I’m sure Dallas wasn’t thrilled to play us in the first round either,” Stone said. “It’s disappointing, but I guess for our organization, fuel the fire. We’ll be ready for September to be right back here next season.”
DeBoer is 8-0 in Game 7s in his career with four teams, including a second-round series with Dallas against Seattle last year before facing the Knights.
The coach has been part of all four of the Game 7s for the Knights, who are 2-2 in those games. DeBoer was their coach for the wins in 2020 and 2021, and on San Jose's bench when the Sharks beat them in 2019.
“They wanted to go back-to-back, and I think they felt they had a team to do it,” DeBoer said. “There was a lot on the line for us too, I think just because of the season we had. ... All the work that we’ve put in this year, and how well we’ve played over the course of the season to earn the No. 1 seed, to get that draw and get ousted would have been hard to swallow."
Instead, DeBoer got to celebrate with a few beers and look ahead to another series.
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
Vegas Golden Knights right wing Mark Stone shakes hands with Dallas Stars center Craig Smith (15) after the Stars won 2-1 in Game 7 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series, Sunday, May 5, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Brandon Wade)
Streamers drop after the Dallas Stars defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 in Game 7 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series, Sunday, May 5, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Brandon Wade)
Vegas Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy, left rear, and a member of his staff leave the bench after the team's 3-2 loss against the Dallas Stars in Game 5 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series in Dallas, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike killed 20 people in central Gaza, mostly women and children, and fighting raged across the north on Sunday as Israel's leaders aired divisions over who should govern Gaza after the war, now in its eighth month.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced criticism from his own War Cabinet, with his main political rival, Benny Gantz, threatening to leave the government if a plan is not formulated by June 8 that includes an international administration for postwar Gaza.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan was expected to meet with top Israeli leaders on Sunday to discuss an ambitious U.S. plan for Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel and help the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza in exchange for a path to eventual statehood.
Netanyahu, who is opposed to Palestinian statehood, has rejected those proposals, saying Israel will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza and partner with local Palestinians unaffiliated with Hamas or the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
Gantz' withdrawal would not bring down Netanyahu's coalition government, but it would leave him more reliant on far-right allies who support the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from Gaza, full military occupation and the rebuilding of Jewish settlements there.
Even as the discussions of postwar planning take on new weight, the war is still raging with no end in sight. In recent weeks, Hamas has regrouped in parts of northern Gaza that were heavily bombed in the early days of the war and where Israeli ground troops had already operated.
The airstrike in Nuseirat, a built-up Palestinian refugee camp in central Gaza dating back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, killed 20 people, including eight women and four children, according to records at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah, which received the bodies.
A separate strike on a street in Nuseirat killed another five people, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service. In Deir al-Balah, a strike killed Zahed al-Houli, a senior officer in the Hamas-run police, and another man, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Palestinians reported more airstrikes and heavy fighting in northern Gaza, which has been largely isolated by Israeli troops for months and where the World Food Program says a famine is underway.
The Civil Defense says the strikes hit several homes near Kamal Adwan Hospital in the town of Beit Lahiya, killing at least 10 people. Footage released by the rescuers showed them trying to pull the body of a woman out of the rubble as explosions echo in the background and smoke rises.
In the urban Jabliya refugee camp nearby, residents reported a heavy wave of artillery and airstrikes.
“The situation is very difficult,” said Abdel-Kareem Radwan, a 48-year-old in Jabaliya. He said the whole eastern side has become a battle zone where the Israeli fighter jets “strike anything that moves."
Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for the Civil Defense, said rescuers had recovered at least 150 bodies, more than half of them women and children, since Israel launched the operation in Jabaliya last week. He said around 300 homes have been “completely destroyed.”
Israel launched its offensive after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which Palestinian militants stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting some 250.
The war has killed at least 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Around 80% of the population of 2.3 million Palestinians have been displaced within the territory, often multiple times.
Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames the high death toll and destruction on Hamas, which positions fighters, tunnels and rocket launchers in dense, residential areas.
Netanyahu's critics, including thousands of protesters who took to the streets again on Saturday, accuse him of prolonging the war and rejecting a cease-fire deal that would release hostages so he can avoid a reckoning over the security failures that led to the attack.
Polls show that Gantz, a political centrist, would likely succeed Netanyahu if early elections are held. That would expose Netanyahu to prosecution on longstanding corruption allegations.
Netanyahu denies any political motives and says the offensive must continue until Hamas is dismantled and the estimated 100 hostages held in Gaza, and the remains of more than 30 others, are returned. He has said it's pointless to discuss postwar arrangements while Hamas is still fighting because the militants have threatened anyone who cooperates with Israel.
Netanyahu also faces pressure from Israel's closest ally, the United States, which has provided crucial military aid and diplomatic cover for the offensive while expressing growing frustration with Israel's conduct of the war.
President Joe Biden's administration recently held up a shipment of 3,500 bombs of up to 2,000 pounds (900 kilograms) each and said the U.S. would not provide offensive weapons for a full-scale invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, citing fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.
But last week, after Israel launched what it says is a limited operation in Rafah, the administration told legislators it would move forward with the sale of $1 billion worth of arms, tank ammunition, tactical vehicles and mortar rounds, according to congressional aides.
Sullivan is expected in Israel after meeting with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Saturday. The administration has been working on an ambitious plan in which Saudi Arabia would recognize Israel and join other Arab states in helping to administer and rebuild Gaza, in exchange for a U.S. defense pact and help in building a civilian nuclear program.
But U.S. and Saudi officials say that deal requires Israel to agree to a credible path to eventual Palestinian statehood, something Netanyahu has repeatedly ruled out.
In Gantz' ultimatum, he expressed support for normalizing ties with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. But he also said “we will not allow any outside power, friendly or hostile, to impose a Palestinian state on us.”
Magdy reported from Cairo and Krauss from Jerusalem.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Police use water cannon to disperse demonstrators blocking a road during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, and calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, May 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Police use water cannon to disperse demonstrators blocking a road during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, and calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, May 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Police disperse demonstrators blocking a road during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, and calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, May 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Police disperse demonstrators blocking a road during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, and calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, May 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Mourners pray over the bodies of Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, at the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Mourners pray over the bodies of Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, at the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians mourn their relatives who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, at the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians mourn their relatives who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, at the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians mourn their relatives who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, at the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians mourn their relatives who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, at the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians mourn their relatives who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, at the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians mourn their relatives who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, at the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A Palestinian boy carries an aid box after storming trucks loaded with humanitarian aid brought in through a new U.S.-built pier, at the beach road of Nusseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, May 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Saher Alghorra)
People protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, May 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Mourners pray over the bodies of Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, at the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
