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

By Josh Clark | Jun 14, 2018

DALLAS, TX - DECEMBER 31: Brett Ritchie /

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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?

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