By Alex Raskin and Associated Press
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Travis Kelce’s whirlwind offseason continued Saturday in Dallas, where the Kansas City Chiefs tight end watched the hometown Stars beat the visiting Edmonton Oilers, 3-1, to even their Western Conference Finals series at a game apiece.
Mason Marchment scored the go-ahead goal for Dallas early in the third period and Esa Lindell followed with an empty netter with two minutes left in the game to seal the victory.
Hockey is not entirely unfamiliar to Kelce.
Both he and his brother Jason are known to attend NBA games in their native Cleveland and the younger Kelce claims he declined a scholarship offer out of high school to play hoops for coach Bob Huggins at West Virginia. But before Kelce became a high school football, basketball and baseball star, Taylor Swift‘s boyfriend was actually a pee wee hockey player in Cleveland Heights.
‘I really love Hockey,’ read an old tweet that resurfaced following Kelce’s appearance at the Stars-Oilers game. ‘I haven’t stepped on the nice since I quit after playing 8 years… But that’s got to change! I miss it too much.’
Travis Kelce in the house tonight at American Airlines Center pic.twitter.com/fBNlPiWLMb
Travis Kelce made a surprise appearance at Saturday’s NHL playoff game in Dallas
A young Kelce (pictured center) is seen holding a trophy during his pee wee hockey days
Kelce wasn’t the only well-known athlete in the crowd on Saturday in Dallas. Former Mavericks star and NBA champion Dirk Nowitzki was also seen at American Airlines Arena, where a statue of the German basketball legend can now be found.
Facing a 1-0 series deficit after dropping Game 1 in double overtime, the Stars got on the board at the 3:39 mark in the first period when Jamie Benn scored on assists from Wyatt Johnston and Miro Heiskanen.
Edmonton’s Connor Brown scored the equalizer a minute later on assists from Cody Ceci and Warren Foegele.
But that tie was ultimately broken 3:41 into the third, when Mason Marchment beat Edmonton keeper Stuart Skinner following a string of missed opportunities for Dallas.
Oilers center Sam Carrick talks to Dallas Stars left wing Mason Marchment (27) in the third
Edmonton’s comeback attempt fell short, and after Skinner was pulled with just over two minutes to play, Dallas’ Esa Lindell put the game out of reach with an empty net goal.
Dallas front-line center Roope Hintz and Oilers forward Adam Henrique both missed another game in these NHL playoffs after being scratched in Game 2.
Both players had been described by their coaches as game-time decisions.
Henrique missed his seventh game in a row, and eighth of nine, since injuring am ankle in the first-round finale against Los Angeles on May 1.
Hintz was out for the fourth game in a row because of an upper-body injury. He hasn’t played since leaving in the first period of Game 4 of the Stars’ second-round series against Colorado on May 13.
Travis Kelce said he played hockey for eight years in a decade-old tweet
Former Mavs star and NBA champ Dirk Nowitzki was also seen at American Airlines Arena
Dallas Stars left wing Mason Marchment (27) and defenseman Miro Heiskanen (4) and Edmonton Oilers left wing Evander Kane (91) and left wing Dylan Holloway (55) collide
Kelce will be racking up the airmiles this summer as he is set to jet back and forth across the Atlantic to support Swift.
The Kansas City Chiefs star has the played the role of doting boyfriend, supporting the pop superstar on her Eras Tour, ever since striking up a romance almost a year ago.
Most recently, the 34-year-old has watched the 14-time Grammy Award winner as she took her sold-out show to Europe.
However, with the start of the NFL season looming, the three-time Super Bowl winner will have to manage a juggling act.
The tight end will reportedly nip back and forth between Europe and the US while Swift continues her tour, which continues Friday in Lisbon, Portugal.
Game 3 is Monday night in Edmonton, where the Stars won 4-3 in their only trip there this season. That was Nov. 2 during the Oilers’ 3-9-1 start that led to Jay Woodcroft getting fired as coach and replaced by Kris Knoblauch.
This was the seventh consecutive time the Stars went into Game 2 of a best-of-seven playoff series coming off a loss, including all three this postseason. Marchment had scored in their 4-3 loss to Vegas in the playoff opener April 22, left Game 2 with an undisclosed injury and then missed six games before returning in Game 2 of the second round against Colorado.
Edmonton center Leon Draisaitl was scoreless, ending his playoff-opening points streak ended at 13 games. That was one short of matching Mark Messier’s franchise record set in 1988.
The teams traded goals 44 seconds apart early in the first period.
Dallas Stars’ Tyler Seguin (91), Esa Lindell (23), Jamie Benn (14) and Miro Heiskanen (4) celebrate after Lindell scored an empty-net goal to seal Saturday’s win over Edmonton
Benn scored on Dallas’ first shot on goal in the game, with a wrister from the top of the right circle that flew across the front of Skinner and in the lower left corner of the net 3:39 into the game.
Edmonton, which outshot the Stars 17-4 in the first period, got even when Brown scored on a rebound of Cody Ceci’s shot after he had initially gotten the puck from Brown. It was Brown’s first goal this postseason, and the only other one he has came in 2018 for Toronto against Boston.
After going 0 for 5 on the power play in the series opener, including a double-minor penalty in the opening seconds of the first overtime that gave them four minutes with a man advantage, the Stars failed to score on their only power play in Game 2.
That extended Edmonton’s streak to 20 penalties killed over six-plus games, since giving up a power-play goal in Game 3 of its second-round series against Vancouver.
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Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd
Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group
