John Klingberg Shines as Dallas Stars Top Wild

By Allison Scott |

The Dallas Stars improved to (14-4-0) tonight with their 3-2 overtime win over the Minnesota Wild.

Recap

First Period

Special teams played a big role in the first twenty minutes as the Stars and Wild each had three penalties. Despite the power play opportunities there was only one goal scored in the frame. John Klingberg shot the puck from the blue line and Jason Spezza deflected it past Minnesota’s Devan Dubnyk to put the Stars up 1-0 7:41 minutes into the game.

Dallas took their one-goal lead as well as a 10-7 shots advantage into the first intermission.

Second Period

The second period saw a few good chances at its start, but the real action picked up a little over five minutes in when Minnesota’s Nino Niederreiter scored to tie the game. Dallas challenged the call for goaltender interference, but it was ruled a good goal and the Stars lost their timeout.

Despite a number of solid offensive opportunities for and against the Stars the two teams went into the second intermission tied 1-1.

Third Period

The third period started with a tally from Jamie Benn on the power play off of a shot from Klingberg to put Dallas up 2-1. The Wild tied the game 7:15 into the frame to tie up the game once again.

With the two teams tied after regulation the Stars and Wild headed to overtime.

Overtime

Just over three minutes into the overtime period John Klingberg scored top shelf off of the rebound to win it for the Stars.

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Thoughts and Observations

Paris Strong

Last night’s shootings in Paris were a tragic occurrence that hit home for a lot of people, especially Dallas Stars forward and French native Antoine Roussel. Dallas paid tribute to the victims of the events in Paris before the game and Roussel supported his home country in his own way by wearing a French flag on his helmet.

The tribute in the game tonight, as well as other games throughout the league, goes to show the respectability of the NHL and the overall well wishes for Paris.

Dallas Has More Than Two Goalies

The Stars have had a lot of press for the goalie battle between Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi; however, Dallas has gotten some extra help from unlikely sources of late. Jason Demers stopped a shot against in the game earlier this week and tonight Tyler Seguin made a save of his own with his skate during the second period.

These uncharacteristic, unplanned saves are because of a few things: determination and luck. The Stars have found ways to be in the right place at the right time because they know when their goaltender is in trouble. It’s not any easy task by any means, but it makes for highly entertaining games and it saves the Stars from losing leads or getting further behind.

Special Teams Galore

Despite it being a low scoring game, there’s no doubt that special teams had a hand in this decision. The game ended the night with twelve power plays evenly split between the teams. That’s a combined twenty-four minutes of power play time during a sixty minute game. While the referees weren’t very forgiving, the two teams found a way to defend well against the opposition’s opportunities.

The Stars did get a goal just after the expiration of a first period penalty and Benn scored a power play tally in the second period, so by that standard the Stars won the special teams battle.

Klingberg.

John Klingberg dominated in the game tonight. He was instrumental in the two goals scored in regulation and he scored the game winner in overtime to earn Dallas the second point. Considering this game was a division battle, it makes no. 3’s play tonight that much more impressive.

Great players play better in big games and that’s exactly what Klingberg did tonight. The Stars really have found a gem on the blue line in the Swedish born defender and he looks to have no symptoms of a sophomore slump.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check back for the preview and post game analysis on Tuesday as the Stars take on the Buffalo Sabres.

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