The Dallas Stars were expecting a tough challenge in their game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. They got it, but ended up earning a point out of it. That’s an impressive and encouraging sign.
For a little while there, it looked like the Dallas Stars were destined for yet another bland loss.
On Thursday night, the Stars welcomed the Tampa Bay Lightning to Dallas to kick off their March campaign. It was set to be an incredibly tough test against the NHL’s best team in a time where the Stars desperately needed points.
It hadn’t been the best recent stretch for Dallas, who had lost four of their last seven games. In addition to the losses, the team had not shown an all-around, dedicated effort on a consistent basis in a while.
So there were some obvious worries as the Stars entered the game. Would they be able to keep up with the wickedly-fast Lightning? Is there a chance Dallas could pick up the two points even if they play a perfect game? And oh heavens, why did Jim Nill not add another player at the trade deadline?
Dallas Stars
But through the first period, all worry was converted into hope. Not only did the Dallas Stars score a goal in response to an early tally from Tampa to tie the game at 1-1, but Dallas was clearly the better team through 20 minutes. They outshot the Lightning 13-6 through the first period, created more chances on offense, and looked more solidified on defense. They looked like a team that had won five of its past six games.
In the second period, however, all of that promise went out the window. After taking their first lead of the game on Tyler Seguin’s second goal, the Lightning turned on the gas. Less than two minutes later, they had tied up the game 2-2 and followed that up with two more goals. The Bolts were up 4-2 at the end of the second and it looked as though the Stars’ hype had run out. Dallas had not been a good comeback team recently and would need to do it against the NHL’s best team.
While everyone was counting the Stars out, they weren’t counting themselves out. The Stars shifted into a new gear in the third period and took the Lightning by complete surprise. Brett Ritchie scored a goal to cut it to a 4-3 deficit, and Mattias Janmark beat the buzzer with less than five seconds to go to tie the game up and send it to overtime.
Dallas eventually fell on a fluky overtime goal with less than a minute to go and only picked up one point in a furious comeback effort.
And that’s perfectly alright.
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The first thing that has to be made clear is this: the Tampa Bay Lightning are an amazing hockey team. They have an overbearing offense, a shutdown defense, and a Vezina-worthy goaltender (along with a pretty excellent backup goalie).
And the Dallas Stars worked their way into overtime. On top of that, it came with a major third period comeback and saw the Stars dominate for two of three periods. That’s not easy to do.
In addition, the one point helped boost Dallas in the playoff race. The Stars now sit only two points back of the Minnesota Wild and own at least a three-point lead over every other team below them.
It’s disappointing that the Stars couldn’t pull off the win, but coming back and getting a point was impressive enough by itself. That cannot be overlooked or downplayed.
Next: Five Ways That The Stars Can Make The Playoffs
The Dallas Stars showed last night that they can be a great team and can do anything with the right amount of effort and energy. They seemed to have forgotten that over the past two or three weeks, but maybe this is their turning point?
Whatever the case may be, it was a good overtime loss that helped Dallas out in more ways than one. So that’s impressive. Now on to the rest of March.