Jake Oettinger speaks out after Game 5 controversy.

The Dallas Stars ended their season with significant controversy in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final when there appeared to be a complete meltdown on the Stars bench during the game's very first period. Stars head coach Peter DeBoer made the bizarre decision to call a timeout and then pull star goaltender Jake Oettinger out of the net, a decision he has since been heavily criticized for, but it wasn't until Saturday that we got to hear how the man himself felt about the entire fiasco.

On Saturday, the Stars spoke during an end of season media availability and that included Oettinger himself.

Oettinger was asked point blank if he was caught off guard by the surprising move from DeBoer, and it seems like he was in the same boat as everyone else that was watching it unfold before their eyes live in the arena or at home on television.

"Obviously I wasn't expecting that to happen," admitted Oettinger. "Yeah it was surprising."

That being said Oettinger placed much of the onus on himself, arguing that if he had done his job as a goaltender than he never would have found himself in this situation to begin with.

"The reality is if I make one or two of those saves then I'm still playing the game," said Oettinger. "The way I'm looking at is how can I get better from that? How can I make those saves that I made all playoffs? How do I make them in that game at the start of the game to give the guys a chance to get their feet under them? As a goalie that's your job so I gotta do better than that."

Oettinger is however a human being and he did admit to reporters that the moment was a humiliating one for him.

"It sucks, it's embarrassing," admitted Oettinger. "Any time you get pulled, doesn't matter if it's playoffs or regular season, you just wanna go right off the ice and crawl in your bed and not talk to anyone. Especially a moment like that, it's really embarrassing."

Rather than dwelling on the past however, Oettinger vowed that he would use the embarrassing situation as fuel to motivate himself to be better in the future.

"I mean I think for me it's just the whole experience I'm gonna learn from it and it's gonna help me grow and be a better person and be a better goalie," said Oettinger. "My job is to stop the puck and I feel like I'm one of the best in the world, when I'm playing well,  at doing that. So that's all I'm gonna focus on, all the extra stuff is just extra stuff to me."

Oettinger did make one eyebrow raising comment however when he suggested that, even if one of the reporters in attendance was his head coach instead of DeBoer, it would have no impact on his game at all.

"If I go out there next year and I'm the best goalie in the world it doesn't matter, one of you guys could be coaching it doesn't matter," said Oettinger.