Dallas Stars Eliminated, but Victorious Over Sharks

Final. 1. 120. 5. 119

The Dallas Stars crushed the San Jose Sharks by a score of 5-1 tonight to increase their season totals to 88 points. The Stars will take the ice next on Wednesday when they visit the Anaheim Ducks.

Recap

Dallas got it started early in this one when Colton Sceviour converted on a turnover a mere 28 seconds into the game. A few seconds later Antoine Roussel dropped the gloves against San Jose’s Mike Brown in a fight that was more standing than fighting. Then when San Jose’s Barclay Goodrow was in the box for elbowing Tyler Seguin, Patrick Eaves netted his twelfth goal of the season to put Dallas up 2-0. They took that lead and a 10-9 shots advantage into the first intermission.

The second period had a slower start than the first, but was still mainly Dallas. At 7:53 of the period when two Sharks were in the box for penalties and the Stars were on a 5-on-3 power play, Jamie Benn scored his 31^st goal of the season to increase Dallas’ lead to 3-0. San Jose got on the board for the first time of the night a few minutes later when Joe Thornton got one past Jhonas Enroth on the power play with Shawn Horcoff in the box for interference. The Stars took their 3-1 lead and 20-15 advantage in shots into the second intermission.

The final twenty-minutes of regulation saw a much slower pace than the first two periods. There were limited chances in the early part of the third despite power play opportunities for each team. Midway through the period, however, the Stars and Sharks exchanged quality scoring chances, but Enroth and Alex Stalock stood tall. Jamie Benn then added another insurance goal at 15:08 of the third when he scored is second of the night and 32nd of the season off of a nice feed from Seguin. Ryan Garbutt took an unnecessary elbowing penalty in neutral ice with a little under five minutes left, but made up for it when he scored on a breakaway out of the box to make it 5-1 Dallas. The Stars’ strong effort increased their winning streak to two with two games remaining.

Thoughts and Observations

Early and Often

Sceviour’s goal less than thirty seconds into the opening frame got the momentum moving in the right direction for the Stars, which fueled their first period attacks thereafter. Patrick Eaves hit the post on Dallas’ first power play of the game and a few other Stars players had some excellent looks after forcing San Jose turnovers. Furthermore, when Dallas’ defense was looser than they wanted Enroth was there to stop offensive Shark attacks. The collective team effort early on in the game set the foundation for the eventual win by the Stars.

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Officially Eliminated

With Winnipeg’s 2-0 win over the Minnesota Wild tonight the Dallas Stars were officially eliminated from playoff contention, but you couldn’t tell by watching them in this game. Sceviour had a pep in his step, Enroth was there when Dallas needed him, and Roussel did what he does best: fight and be an aggressor. Jason Demers also had a solid game in his first trip back to the SAP Center to take on his old team, assisting on Sceviour’s goal early in the first. There’s no quit in the Stars’ game and being eliminated had no effect on that.

Western Conference Elite

Jamie Benn had a big game for Dallas tonight scoring his 31st and 32nd goals of the season, while also assisting on Eaves’ power play goal during the first period. His three point performance moved him to within one point of Sidney Crosby for the league lead in scoring. More than that he dominated physically, participating in a small brawl after Seguin was knocked to the ice following a hit. When Jamie Benn is playing his best hockey he’s involved in every aspect of the game, and that’s exactly how he played tonight. Seguin was a little more quiet tonight, but he still got two points for assisting on both of Benn’s goals. Together not only are they are a dynamic duo, they are the top two scorers of the Western Conference. Benn is number one with 80 points, while Seguin isn’t far behind with an impressive 76. If anything, these two are a great reason for positivity looking towards next season in Dallas.

Thanks for reading all season long Stars fans! While I wish that we’d have playoff games to look forward to, it has still be a blast writing for Blackout Dallas this season! Even though the team will be in offseason mode, all of us here at Blackout will still be writing about the boys, so keep checking back regularly!

The Stars will play their second-to-last game of the 2014-2015 season Wednesday night when they visit Anaheim and we’ll have full coverage of the game here!

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