Dallas Stars Top 25 Games Of 2017-18 Season: 25-21
The Dallas Stars didn’t qualify for the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs. But that doesn’t mean their 2017-18 season wasn’t interesting and entertaining. Here is a countdown of the top 25 best games from this past season.
There’s nothing quite like watching a Dallas Stars game.
Whether you are on your couch watching them on TV or in the seats at the American Airlines Center, it’s a unique experience. Part of that has to do with the non-traditional vibe that the team carries in the hockey world.
But a large part of it simply has to do with the team itself. And for the past few years, it’s been a complete gamble when trying to decipher which team you’re going to get.
Maybe you get the 2013-14 Stars who were cautiously optimistic and somehow found a way to make things work? Then there was the 2014-15 Stars that looked good on paper but really struggled to make ends meet on the ice. Or perhaps you get the 2015-16 Stars who were fast, relentless, and oh so much fun to watch? But then again, you might get the eye-sore that was the 2016-17 Stars who couldn’t seem to do anything right.
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It’s been an eventful rollercoaster ride over the past few seasons.
But we cannot forget about the most recent corkscrew in the adventure: the 2017-18 regular season.
In this most recent 82-game journey, the Dallas Stars put together quite an intriguing show. It started out slow and average in the beginning, then ramped up to a faster and more impressive speed, but ended by crashing and burning in a horrific fashion.
After putting together a dominant stretch from late November to late February, Dallas all of a sudden flipped into reverse. They undid all of their prior progress and couldn’t seem to do one thing correctly in the month of March.
And as a result, they missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second year in a row. This shortcoming arrived with more confusion and frustration as the Stars settled in for another offseason of significant change.
But it wasn’t all bad. In fact, there were plenty of bright and exciting moments from the 2017-18 season. After all, a record of 42-32-8 has to come with at least a decent number of good times, especially during the team’s 25th anniversary season.
Here at Blackout Dallas, we found 25 games (funny how that works) that were just a little (or lot) more special than the rest. And with that, we thought it would be a good idea to lay them out in a ranked format. This ranking will give Dallas Stars fans the opportunity to take a walk down memory lane and remember some of the bright spots from this past season.
We will post five games at a time over the next week or two until we get down to the no. 1 game of the season. With each game, we will provide a video or highlight (if applicable) of just what made the game so special. We will also put up a summary of the game to help jog your memory.
So, without further ado, let’s get back to the happy times of Dallas Stars hockey. Here are games 25-21 of the Top 25 Games of the 2017-18 Season.
25. Dallas Stars @ Chicago Blackhawks, Nov. 30, 2017
Starting the countdown off, we have the Dallas Stars and Chicago Blackhawks game from Nov. 30, 2018.
Let’s set the scene. After struggling through the first six weeks of the regular season, the Stars are finally starting to find their stride. They have won four of their past five games and are starting to gain traction as December draws near.
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But before the month of November comes to a close, the Stars have to meet up with a Central Division foe away from home. That’s the Chicago Blackhawks. The Hawks are enduring their own struggles and are trying to find some consistency as the middle portion of the season approaches.
It was the first game of a home-and-home series for the two rivals that trailed into the beginning of December. Big points were on the line as both teams grappled for position in the airtight division standings.
And on both accounts, the Dallas Stars found a way to emerge victorious. But on Nov. 30, the win turned out to be a little extra special.
It was a night for the young guns of Dallas to get on the scoresheet. Mattias Janmark opened the scoring up with 5:14 to go in the first quarter, but was quickly mirrored by Alex DeBrincat nine seconds later. Radek Faksa pitched in with a shorthanded penalty shot goal as the first drew to an end, giving the Stars a 2-1 lead at the intermission.
In the second period, Artem Anisimov tacked on a goal in the first two minutes of the game, only to be retaliated by Remi Elie a few minutes later.
Patrick Kane opened up the third period with a goal that got the Chicago roaring for the rest of the period. At the end of regulation, the game stood at a 3-3 tie. But after just 51 seconds of overtime, Janmark proved to be the hero, tallying the winner on a swift breakaway to end the game and silence the United Center.
Even though the Stars’ juggernaut line was scoreless on the stat sheet, the depth forwards picked up the pace. Dallas successfully countered each Chicago attack and found a way to come back with their depth scoring. That’s a feat that rarely occurred for the Stars this past year.
An overtime win from a guy with a great story on the road against a rival. That’s a pretty sweet headline if you ask us.
24. Dallas Stars @ Vancouver Canucks, October 30, 2017
Let’s just start by pointing out that there wasn’t much going on in this game. For the majority of it, the two teams simply traded punches while trying to break through on each end. But, there is a reason it sits at no. 24.
Going into the last game of October, the Dallas Stars were still searching for an identity. They were 6-5-0, had lost two of their last three, and were on the fourth stop of a five-game road trip. But maybe, just maybe, they would be able to close out the month on a strong note with a win against an ailing Vancouver team clearly in need of a rebuild.
But the Canucks came out swinging. The first period ended in a scoreless tie, though Vancouver owned a 16-9 shots advantage. In the second period, Tyler Seguin broke the tie with a power play goal. Vancouver continued to push and owned the 27-19 shot advantage after two, but still needed a goal.
They got it on the power play from Sam Gagner with 14 minutes left in the third period. The tie propelled the teams to overtime with neither wanting to give an inch in the tightly-contested game.
But after recovering the puck in his own zone, Alexander Radulov went beast mode. He took the puck from end to end and scored on a sweet move around the halfway point of OT.
The incredible play only further helped build Radulov’s impressive resume through the first month with Dallas. It was his third of four straight games with a goal and his two-point effort was the third straight in what would be a nine-game stretch of tallying points.
The goal helped Dallas escape with the two points and bump their record to 7-5-0. On top of that, the Stars also snapped a four-game win streak owned by the Canucks. All in all, it was a pretty good way to end the first month of the season.
23. Colorado Avalanche @ Dallas Stars, October 14, 2017
This game in particular is special for a few reasons.
The day was October 14, and the Dallas Stars had already found a way to turn a hyped offseason into an uncertain mess.
Just eight days after losing game one of their season to the newly-created Vegas Golden Knights, the Stars were back home to face off with the Avalanche. The Avs were riding an unexpected hot streak and sat at a 4-1-0 mark on the year. Dallas, on the other hand, was 1-3-0 with their only win coming against a struggling Detroit Red Wings team.
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It was the third Central Division showdown for the Stars, who were already 0-2-0 against divisional foes. So a win to kickstart their play in the Central was pretty dire at this point. After all, 1-3-0 was nowhere near what was expected of a team that heavily improved over the offseason.
But Dallas showed no signs of sloppiness or neglect in their play. After outshooting Colorado 14-4 in the first period, the Stars got goals from Jamie Benn in the first minute and Tyler Seguin in the last minute of the second to take the 2-0 lead. And though Matt Duchene scored early in the third, the Stars would hold on with Esa Lindell score on an empty net for his first goal of the season to finish off the 3-1 victory.
The win was a big one for Ken Hitchcock in particular. After defeating the Red Wings, Hitchcock moved into a tie with Al Arbour for third place all-time on the wins list for NHL head coaches. The victory over the Avalanche gave him sole control of third place.
Dallas reigned supreme throughout the game and put up an impressive fight that they would build on throughout the rest of the month. The win would be the first of a four-game win streak that helped get the Stars back on track.
Oh, and did we mention that Ben Bishop stopped 22-23 and Tyler Seguin picked up his first Gordie Howe hat trick after fighting former teammate Patrik Nemeth in his first career hockey fight? Good times.
22. Edmonton Oilers @ Dallas Stars, November 18, 2017
When 11 of the 18 skaters on your team tally a point in one game, you know it was a good game. When two fights and plenty of scruffs go down, you know it was a good game. And when the final score shows 6-3, you know it was a good game.
All in all, it was a really good game for the Dallas Stars on Nov. 18. It was a Saturday afternoon affair just before Thanksgiving, and Dallas was once again in need of a serious spark to kickstart their season.
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The Stars had just finished a winless three-game road trip with a 6-1 beatdown at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Something needed to be done and fast. Maybe they could find a way to turn things around against an Edmonton Oilers team that was turning out to be a shell of what it was in 2016-17.
Things started out on an ultimately positive note. Dallas received goals from Antoine Roussel and Alexander Radulov within three minutes of each other in the first period and seemed to be in control. But the Oilers would respond quickly with two goals of their own at the end of the frame.
The two teams entered first intermission in a 2-2 tie.
To make matters worse, starting goaltender Kari Lehtonen was pulled in the first minute of the second after giving up a third goal. Dallas was down 3-2 early on and needed a surge. Boy, did it show up in full force.
Devin Shore and Radek Faksa scored goals to close out the second and regain a lead for the Stars. And in the third period, Jamie Benn and Jason Spezza found the back of the net as well. It was goals and assists galore for 11 Dallas Stars players while Ben Bishop played a clean 39:14.
And to put a cherry on top, Greg Pateryn fought Milan Lucic and actually drew blood. As a relatively newcomer to the lineup, it was impressive seeing Pateryn go after the biggest guy on the opposing team to stand up for his teammates.
Oh, and Jamie Oleksiak (who now plays in Pittsburgh) took an iron fist to the side of Patrick Maroon‘s head in their own bout. Take a look.
All in all, it was a pretty dang good Saturday afternoon in Dallas.
21. St. Louis Blues @ Dallas Stars, December 29, 2017
It’s become almost natural for the Dallas Stars to catch fire around Christmastime. In 2015-16, the Stars posted a 7-3-1 record from Dec. 11-31. Even in 2016-17 when wins were hard to come by for Dallas, the team put up a 5-3-1 record over that same span.
And it held true in December 2017 as well. From Dec. 11-31, the Dallas Stars posted a 6-2-2 record. One of those six wins came against a St. Louis Blues team that probably never expected to walk away without two points. That’s what made the game so entertaining.
It was the first game of a six-game homestand for Dallas. They had just come off of a loss on the road to Minnesota to start post-Christmas play, which only further complicated their record against the division. So a game against St. Louis was big.
The Stars were a humbling 0-2-0 against the Blues up to that point in the season and could not seem to figure them out. Ken Hitchcock just couldn’t seem to put a finger on his former team.
But this game was quite a dramatic prelude to New Year’s Eve. After a gritty first period ended with no goals scored but plenty of heroic actions by Ben Bishop and his defensemen, the Stars turned up the gas in the second. Bishop stood tall yet again and Janmark scored on a nice feed from Spezza to give Dallas a 1-0 lead at second intermission.
Dallas entered the third period with a good amount of momentum, but it all disappeared within the first five minutes. St. Louis tacked on back-to-back goals on two mistimed plays and secured their first lead of the game.
As time wound down, it seemed as though the Stars’ December hot streak was approaching an abrupt close. It was also going to be their third consecutive loss to the Blues and further hurt their divisional mark.
But then, the AAC line entered the party. Jamie Benn scored on a broken play with under five minutes to play to tie the game. Following him just over two minutes later was Alexander Radulov with a power play goal. Radulov would also finish the game off with an empty net goal.
Almost in the blink of an eye, the Dallas Stars turned a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 victory. This win definitely involved some post-Christmas magic. It also served as a major turning point in the Stars’ season and helped spark their confidence for the two months that followed.
At that point, it really looked as though this team could do anything.
Next: Stars Must Make Right Choice On Backup Goaltender
Well, that’s all we have for nos. 25-21. Check back soon for the next edition of Top 25 Games of the Stars’ 2017-18 Season where we will reveal games 20-16. You can be assured that it will be another memorable walk down memory lane.