Dallas Stars Should Give Mike McKenna Another Start After Win

After serving as the Dallas Stars backup for almost a month, Mike McKenna wasn’t expected to get any playing time on the road trip. But last night, he stepped into a tough situation and led the Stars to victory. Now is the perfect time to give him another shot.

The Dallas Stars took a game that meant nothing to their team and turned it into a special story. How is that for entertainment?

Dallas started their final week of the season and three-game road trip with a visit to San Jose on Tuesday night. After recently being mathematically eliminated from the playoff race, they don’t have much left to play for.

They were going up against a Sharks team that sat second in the Pacific Division but is still fighting for home ice advantage. While the Stars had little motivation, the Sharks had plenty. It showed through the first two periods.

The Sharks outshot the Stars 18-5 in the first period and 30-11 through the first two frames. They were quicker on the puck, controlled the flow of the game, and gave Dallas very little opportunity to counter. Meanwhile, the Stars looked exactly like what they were: a team recently removed from the playoff race with nothing left to fight for.

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Things took an even more severe turn for the worst when backup goaltender Kari Lehtonen took a puck up high and had to be removed from the game. As if losing starting goaltender Ben Bishop for the majority of the playoff push and dropping as a result wasn’t bad enough, the Stars were now without both of their NHL goaltenders.

That’s when attention shifted to Mike McKenna, and he wasn’t put in the best of situations to make his Dallas debut.

McKenna, who signed a one-year deal with the Stars this past offseason, has spent the majority of this season in the AHL with the Texas Stars. He’s played a good portion of the schedule and given Texas a veteran presence in the crease.

The 34-year-old wasn’t expected to get any playing time in the final three games of the Stars’ season and was simply serving as a last resort. The Stars hit that last resort when Lehtonen was removed from the game.

McKenna entered the game in the first period in a 2-0 hole. San Jose was bearing down and turning up the heat while the Stars continued looking confused and unenthusiastic. Not an ideal situation for a third-string goaltender.

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But by the time the game was all said and done, Jamie Benn had his third career NHL hat trick and the Dallas Stars secured a 4-2 upset win. And yet, Benn wasn’t the center of focus (at least for Stars fans). The spotlight was on McKenna, whose heroics, especially in the first half of the game, helped lead the Stars to victory.

After bouncing around to 16 different professional hockey teams, McKenna signed with the Dallas Stars organization in the 2017 offseason. Four of those teams were at the NHL level, where McKenna owned an iffy 5-11-2 record with an .889 save percentage and 3.48 goals against average. Ouch.

And yet, he was thrown into the fire when Dallas needed him most and he passed with flying colors. McKenna made some excellent saves that included a few breakaway and up close shots by quality shooters. He stopped all 17 shots that he faced and kept the Stars in it while they found their momentum and confidence.

His performance was exactly what he needed, but it was also exactly what the Dallas Stars and their fan base needed. That’s the feel good story that has been missing from this franchise in the midst of recent turmoil.

And the Stars need to reward him for it. Ken Hitchcock said after the game that Lehtonen was fine and that he wouldn’t confirm which goaltender will start in the final two games, but that McKenna earned a start with his play. Whether that carries any weight into Friday and Saturday or not remains to be seen.

But so far, McKenna’s numbers for the Dallas Stars are as follows: 1-0-0, 1.00 SV%, 0.00 GAA. Spotless.

The Dallas Stars needed a story like Mike McKenna to come along at this point in the year. In a season seemingly lost to frustration and disbelief, the backup’s backup that has conquered a long and winding road in his professional career stepped in and led the team to an impressive comeback win over a playoff team. Now THAT is a headline.

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Only two games remain for the Stars in the 2017-18 season. Might as well make the most out of them before the offseason sets in. Playing McKenna in at least one of those games is one way of doing that.

You go, Mike.