Dallas Stars Top 25 Games Of 2017-18 Season: 15-11

15. Dallas Stars @ New York Rangers, December 11, 2017

Is it just me or is a game up north in December just a little extra special? Maybe it’s the Christmas vibe or the wintry atmosphere, but playing an Original Six team in New York City with holiday celebrations just around the corner seems to carry a little extra weight. Maybe it’s because I’m still in college and associate it with getting out for break.

Whatever the case, the Dallas Stars found themselves in this situation on December 11, 2017 at Madison Square Garden.

It was a Monday night and the Stars were kicking off a four-game road trip through the Northeast. And yes, they were still trying to figure out their identity.

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For the first month or two of the season, Dallas was an indecisive team to say the least. One night, they would dominate and win their game by a healthy margin. But on the next night, they would fall short in one area or simply get outworked and fall to their opposition.

But at the end of November, things looked to be turning for the better. As the month ended and transitioned to December, the Stars collected a five-game win streak (their longest win streak of the season) and put themselves back in playoff contention.

However, the indecisiveness settled back in quickly and Dallas hit a three-game losing skid from December 5-9.

So, their record of 16-13-1 was believable at that point in the year. And it was definitely a cause for concern with the midpoint of the season approaching. That’s what made this road trip so important, and it all started with the Rangers.

And while this game is no. 15 on the “Best Stars Games of 2017-18” list, it just might be no. 1 on the “Most Aggravating Stars Wins of 2017-18” list.

That’s because, in case you’ve forgotten, the Stars absolutely dominated this game. In every area. And it wasn’t even close.

For reference, the Stars took 33 shots to the Rangers’ 10 through the first two periods. On offense, they were overbearing and electric, generating plenty of high-grade chances. On defense, they were quick to shut down transitions and made Kari Lehtonen work very minimally through the first two frames. Dallas didn’t commit a single penalty in the game and drew three separate calls on New York.

Even in the third period, the Stars played conservatively with the 1-0 lead that was built from Julius Honka’s first goal of the season. And yet, the Rangers found a way to tie things up on a fluky tip-in goal with less than four minutes to go in the game. The game went to overtime with neither team being able to break the 1-1 tie. By the time the extra period was over, the Stars owned a 45-25 shot advantage.

Oh, and now might be a good time to remind you that Ondrej Pavelec was serving as goaltender for the Rangers. That’s right. Pavelec. The goaltender who was not re-signed by an ailing Jets team after failing to serve as a consistent starter for the team.

As the backup for a shaky Rangers team, he found a way to go 44/45 in the 65 minutes of gameplay and earn his team a point in a game they had no business getting any points in.

By the time the shootout rolled around, the consensus thought on the minds of Stars fans was likely: Oh great. They play their best all-around game of the season and still won’t be able to break out of this losing skid. A weak backup goaltender that could never make it as a starter is going to turn in the performance of a lifetime and put the cherry on top by stalling us in the shootout. Never heard this story before (insert sarcasm here).

But that’s not how it went, surprisingly enough. After Mats Zuccarello and Alexander Radulov scored on the first attempts for their teams, both goalies stood tall until Jason Spezza scored as the Stars’ third shooter to claim the second point and victory.

It wasn’t an easy game for Stars fans to digest, but it ended in a victorious tone due to a mass of resilience. Honka scored his first goal and earned the spartan helmet and Kari Lehtonen, Alexander Radulov, and Jason Spezza proved heroic in the shootout. It was an incredible showing of pure domination by Dallas, regardless of what the scoreboard showed.

Sometimes you just run into a red hot backup goaltender, right?

14. Minnesota Wild @ Dallas Stars, March 31, 2018

The hardest time to find a silver lining is in the midst of grief or distress. And that’s what made Fan Appreciation Night such a difficult one for the Dallas Stars and their fans on March 31.

On Fan Appreciation Night 2014, the Stars clinched a playoff spot. One year later on Fan Appreciation Night, Dallas had already been eliminated from the playoff race but Jamie Benn made up for it in a significant way by clinching the Art Ross Trophy with a four-point performance.

In 2016, the Stars were well past fighting for a playoff spot and had secured the first seed in the Western Conference. And in 2017, Dallas was already well out of the race but finished on a high note with a shootout win.

Blackhawk Up

But this past year, there was no certainty and a heavy tinge of disappointment that accompanied the annual promotional night. Four weeks prior, the Stars had seemed like a lock for the postseason. But after a nightmarish crawl through the month of March, Dallas had watched their playoff probability drop to nearly zero. A win against Minnesota was required to keep them alive, and even then they could be eliminated within 30 hours of the game. That’s how bad things were.

Dallas Stars fans were stuck in a mixture of frustration, confusion, and disappointment to really focus on the game itself, and for good reason. The reality was quickly settling in that the team would miss the playoffs for the second straight season after setting their sights incredibly high in the offseason prior.

But the show had to go on, and Dallas made sure to deliver one last time for their home fans. The Stars welcomed in the Wild, a team they had lost to 48 hours prior, for their final home game of the year before heading out on a three-game trip.

Behind goals from Jason Spezza and John Klingberg, the Stars carried a 2-0 lead through the first two periods. Radek Faksa scored a shorthanded goal early in the third period to bump the lead up to 3-0. And to close out the night, Tyler Seguin scored an empty net goal to give Dallas the 4-1 advantage.

But this wasn’t just any empty net goal. With the tally, Seguin notched 40 goals for the first time in his career and became the third Star in franchise history to reach the feat (behind Mike Modano and Jamie Benn).

Kari Lehtonen played a superb game, stopping 33 of 34 shots in front of a sold out crowd. If it truly was his last home game as a member of the Dallas Stars, he made sure to go out with a bang.

So behind Seguin making Dallas Stars history, Faksa’s shorthanded goal, Lehtonen’s excellent showing, and the players giving their jerseys to selected season ticket holders, it was a special night that helped shine a light on what had become an ultimately dark season. It’s the little victories that count (at least somewhat).

13. Dallas Stars @ Colorado Avalanche, December 3, 2017

Scoring in increments of seven isn’t just for football, ya know. In fact, the Stars did it on TWO separate occasions this past season. We already covered the other instance from a game against Buffalo (which rang in as no. 17 in our countdown). But the first time they hit seven this past year was on December 3 in the Mile High City.

Let’s set the stage quickly before we dive in. The Stars arrived in Denver in the early hours of December 3. Just a few hours before, they had claimed a win over the Chicago Blackhawks on home ice. But the win came at a cost as the game advanced to the shootout, claiming extra energy from the group.

App Trigger

But it was worth it. After all, the win marked four in a row for Dallas, which tied their longest win streak of the season. They were tired and in need of a breather, but had no time to kick back. They were only hours away from facing off with an Avalanche team that had been surprisingly good through the first third of the season (and would eventually cap off their surprising run with a playoff berth).

So Dallas was going for their longest win streak of the season which would also boost their standing in the playoff race. It was a big game, but it wasn’t going to be easy.

Well, at least it wasn’t supposed to be easy. But somehow, the Dallas Stars made it look that way.

Tyler Seguin got the game started off quickly with two goals in the final 5:16 of the first period to give Dallas the early lead. The Stars were actually outshot 11-5 in the first, but still snuck out with the 2-0 lead. And they didn’t stop there, either. In fact, they were just getting started.

Mikko Rantanen scored a goal early in the second period to cut the lead in half, giving Colorado a sliver of hope. It was quickly negated, however, as Jason Spezza and Greg Pateryn (his first of the year) scored goals within 1:04 of each other to make it a 4-1 game. In the third period, Brett Ritchie netted two of his own (the first multi-goal game of his career) and Devin Shore put a shorthanded tally on the board (the first of his career).  It was definitely a game for firsts, huh?

Kari Lehtonen came in and carried the load while Ben Bishop rested, stopping 25/27 shots and helping keep the Avalanche at bay while the offense poured it on.

It was an incredible performance by a tired team that helped them continue building on an impressive nine-day stretch. Seven goals is impressive and so is a five-game win streak. That’s definitely worth no. 13 on our countdown.

12. Dallas Stars @ Los Angeles Kings, April 7, 2018

For the second consecutive year, game 82 of the regular season did not greet the Dallas Stars on a graceful note.

That’s because for the second season in a row, the Stars knew ahead of time that game 82 would be their last time to compete at the NHL level before the following September. And while that’s a depressing thought and we could probably write a book on it, we’re here to talk about the good parts of game 82. For instance, the fact that the Stars won is a pretty good part of it.

The ironic thing is that after a month of slow starts that ended up bumping the Stars from the playoff picture, Dallas got out to arguably their quickest start of the season in their final game against the Kings. In front of a Staples Center crowd ready to see their team advance to the playoffs and meet up with Vegas (ouch), the Stars claimed the game early on and never let go.

In the first period alone, Dallas picked up four goals. Those goals all came in a span of 7:16 and, almost in the blink of an eye, the Stars owned a 4-0 lead. But who scored the goals? Devin Shore netted the first one, but the final three came from someone else. If you forgot who it was, his picture is currently gracing this slide.

Jamie Benn, the longtime Dallas Stars captain, scored a natural hat trick in the first period to boost the Stars lead to an insurmountable level. It was the fourth hat trick of his NHL career (all of which have been scored in the last four seasons). It was also his second hat trick in three games and second of the road trip. That’s an impressive feat to deliver on when a team has nothing left to play for besides pride.

Puck Prose

Though this charge was a little too late, Benn earned First Star of the Week honors for the final week of the regular season.

Dallas held the line through the rest of the game, though Alec Martinez tacked on two of his own in the second period to cut the deficit in half. The goals left Stars fans uneasy as the threat of another pitiful collapse loomed.

But behind another strong performance by Kari Lehtonen, who stopped 34/36 shots in what very likely was his last game ever as a Star, Dallas carried the day with the 4-2 win.

And though their playing time ended for the year at the final buzzer, they still found a way to build hope. It was an ideal way to close out what had become an unimaginable season to fathom. With the win, Dallas entered another offseason of likely change that is now gaining rapid speed following the game. Good memories that remind us that the 2017-18 season is now in the past.

11. San Jose Sharks @ Dallas Stars, December 31, 2017

New Year’s Eve has taken on a new meaning for North Texas ever since the Stars arrived in Dallas. In all but four of the team’s 24 seasons in Big D, the Stars have played in a game on New Year’s Eve. And boy, do they know how to find success when trying to close out the calendar year on a high note.

The Stars are an impressive 13-5-2 since moving to Dallas. They picked up that thirteenth win on the last night of 2017 this past season in front of a raucous, sold-out crowd.

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It was a cold and icy day in late December as the Stars welcomed the San Jose Sharks to town for one final bout to close out 2017. But what was supposed to be a heavily contested game between two teams in need of points quickly tipped into a one-sided bloodbath.

For the entire 60-minute period, it seemed as though the Stars could do nothing wrong. They were quicker on the puck, owned the quality scoring chances, and dominated the contest from the first drop of the puck.

Midway through the first period, Dallas owned a 14-2 advantage in shots. The advantage sat at 17-5 by the end of the period. John Klingberg and Tyler Pitlick scored during that first frame, while Bishop boasted a clean slate.

The Stars systematically doubled down in the second period, scoring another two goals thanks to a sizzling wrist shot from Stephen Johns and a power play tally from Tyler Seguin.

And, in the third period, can you guess what happened? That’s right. The Stars cranked out two more goals while keeping the Sharks at bay. Devin Shore and Tyler Pitlick each found the back of the net in the final period to make it a 6-0 contest, much to the approval of the partying Dallas Stars fans that were banging on the glass and screaming from the stands.

Bishop was stellar in the net, logging his fourth shutout of the season. 11 Stars players tallied at least one point in the game, with five of them notching multi-point performances. The Stars had some early injuries that looked scary at the time they occurred but ended up being harmless. When Dallas tried to be effective, they were (almost too effective). And when they didn’t try as much, they still did enough to keep San Jose off the score sheet.

The win pulled the Stars deeper into the Western Conference playoff picture and helped build their resume. Though it didn’t end up holding, the feeling in the moment was surreal, right? Just don’t think about the present for a moment.

It was an ideal way to close out 2017 and actually marked the halfway mark for the 2017-18 season. Things were looking incredibly good as Dallas picked up their fourth win in five games and did it with an overpowering team effort from the net, out.

Next: Stars Preseason Games To Mark On Your Calendar

That’s all we have for no. 15-11. Check back soon for the next edition of Top 25 Games of the Stars’ 2017-18 Season where we will reveal games 10-6. You can be assured that it will be another walk down memory lane that you won’t soon forget.

MORE READING: Stars’ Top 25 Games of 2017-18 Season: No. 25-21, Stars’ Top 25 Games of 2017-18 Season: No. 20-16