Dallas Stars Face Biggest Test Of Playoffs Tonight
By Josh Clark
The Dallas Stars have an interesting test ahead of them tonight in St. Louis. It’s game three of their semifinals series against the Blues, and a win is almost crucial.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs have a knack for showing the true colors of every team lucky enough to participate. Unlike the playoffs of any other professional sport, the NHL playoffs are always a gamble, and there is no telling which team will come out on top.
Which team wants it most? That is the ultimate question that it all boils down to. That is what the two month journey is all for. And maybe a little bit about the hardware that is bestowed upon the victor.
The Dallas Stars have proved over the past three weeks that they want it. Or they at least want something. A long playoff run? It’s looking like it. A Stanley Cup? More than likely. One of the biggest things they want is respect, and they have earned it.
After a thrilling first round bout with the Minnesota Wild, the Dallas Stars are now in the second round. Sure they slipped a few times in the Western Conference quarterfinals, but ultimately they handled the Wild in six games and proved that they were hungry and prepared for more.
Now in the second round, they are facing off against the St. Louis Blues, a team much more fluidly capable than the Minnesota Wild. The Blues endured a brutal first round matchup with the reigning Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks that never leave playoff action on a quiet note. But somehow St. Louis found a way to top Chicago in seven and move on.
So now the battle ensues between the two best teams in the Central Division, both who are capable of not only advancing, but competing for and hoisting the Cup. What on earth is bound to happen?
Well, an intense series of course. Two games have already been played, and they have yet to disappoint the eager fan bases of both teams and the NHL general public as a whole.
Going into the series, the odds seemed stacked against the Dallas Stars. They were missing their superstar center Tyler Seguin for at least the first two home games. They had struggled to close out the Wild in a crazy game six, leading people to believe they truly were still a team in its playoff infancy. To top it all off, they were going up against the team that had just knocked off the World Champions.
This led the majority of fans, media, and analysts to bet against Dallas and pick the Blues to come out victorious in an entertaining series.
In game one, the Stars made sure to prove all of their doubters wrong. They gave St. Louis all they could handle, outhitting and outshooting the Blues by considerable margins, as well as owning the possession game. It was a closer contest than it should have been, but Dallas secured the 2-1 win to take a 1-0 series lead.
Game two rolled around on Sunday afternoon at the American Airlines Center, and the Dallas Stars looked poised to take a dominating 2-0 series advantage. Instead, an early but fatal slip up in the first period had them pinned in a hole. By the end of the first period, the Stars were trailing 3-1. They would once again prove their legitimacy by scoring two goals in the third and forcing the game to overtime.
But a careless penalty was called on Antoine Roussel about halfway through the first overtime period, and the Dallas Stars could not recover. David Backes scored on the power play and clinched the 4-3 win to knot the series at 1-1 and shift it over to St. Louis, Missouri.
In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it is perfectly normal for every game to be a must-win game. In every game that happens, there is a legitimate and valid argument for why each team “must” win that certain game. Game three between the Stars and Blues is scheduled for tonight, and there is significant evidence for why this is a must-win for Dallas.
If the Dallas Stars are looking to win this series, they need a victory tonight at the Scottrade Center. It’s game three of a 1-1 battle, and the winner of tonight’s game will hold the advantage. The Stars arguably owned the advantage in the first two games, but one minor slip-up occurred and the Blues made it count in obtaining a win.
They won a game in Dallas, so the Stars must return the favor in St. Louis. So why can’t they return the favor in game four if tonight doesn’t work out? To be honest, they may be too far behind by that point. If the Blues can win tonight, they can reenergize their home crowd and drown out the Stars’ chances in game four.
There will be a heavy showing of Blues’ nation tomorrow night in this Central Division matchup, but they are coming in with the presumption that it is still any team’s series. The Stars must capitalize on that if they are looking to stay around for the long run.
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They struggled in game three at Minnesota, coughing up an early two goal lead to eventually lose 5-3. But they rallied in game four and took a commanding 3-1 series lead on their way back to Dallas. The Blues will be aiming to hold down their fort, so if the Stars can cause a ruckus and bloody St. Louis’ nose in front of their home crowd, they could set the stage for a commanding rally in the games ahead.
But this all rests on the Stars’ winning tonight in enemy territory. No team is ever in pristine condition when they lose in front of their home crowd and are forced to get the win back on the road. But it’s been done plenty of times before, and Dallas needs to be the next team to accomplish this feat.
Tyler Seguin and Patrick Eaves were on the ice yesterday before practice, meaning that they could both be returning in the next couple of days. But until then, the Dallas Stars will need to rest in their underhanded young guns. That has not proven to be a detrimental problem over these past few weeks.
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Hold on, folks. This series is just starting to get good, but if the Stars are looking to eventually punch their ticket to the Western Conference Finals, they will need to find a way to win tonight. So calling Radek Faksa, Antoine Roussel, Jamie Benn, Jason Spezza, Antti Niemi, or whoever else would like to pitch in. It’s time to shine.
This team has proven multiple times this year that they are capable of surprising us. Can they continue the trend and answer the bell tonight in front of a hostile crowd? Either way, make sure to have your TV set on NBC Sports tonight at 8:30. The intensity of this series is about to ramp up.