Dallas Stars: Important Win Over Boston Shows Team’s Composure

It wasn’t the most flashy showing, but the Dallas Stars found a way to get it done on Friday night against the Boston Bruins. That’s the kind of win that shows just how many faces this Stars team possesses.

Sometimes, the palest wins can say the most about a hockey team. And on Friday night, a pale win for the Dallas Stars told a lot about what this team can do.

Going into Friday night’s contest, the Stars were in search of positivity. After losing some of their top-end talent to injury at the beginning of an eight-day homestand and going winless over the previous six days, Dallas needed something to close out the stand on a high note.

They welcomed in a Boston Bruins team that had outplayed them just 11 days before in a 2-1 overtime loss. In the first matchup, the Stars were outshot 35-25 and took plenty of unnecessary penalties that led to their ultimate demise with a power play goal against in the extra frame.

So, not only was Friday a chance to end the homestand with positivity, but also an opportunity to swing back at the Bruins and split the season series. The Stars took advantage of both chances.

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Both Dallas and Boston dug in off of the first puck drop and turned the game into more of a defensive battle than anything. There were some scoring chances, most notably for the Stars early on and the Bruins late in the game, but nothing came to fruition. The game passed on to overtime and a 3-on-3 setup, and that’s where Jason Dickinson finally ended it with his second OT winner of the season.

The win gave the Stars a spark to end their homestand on, two important points that kept them in the playoff picture, and a 10-7-2 record on the year.

But the two points aren’t the important part of the story here. Instead, it’s how the Stars went about getting them.

The important part about this game is that the Dallas Stars had to dig in for this win. It wasn’t a game filled with high-scoring and frequent chances like the games against San Jose and Nashville last week. It also wasn’t a game where even two goals could be found. Instead, it was a “first goal wins” scenario, and those are the toughest scenarios to win.

The Dallas Stars had never won a 1-0 game in overtime in franchise history going into Friday night. They were also 0-4-1 when tied after two periods so far in the 2017-18 season. They broke both of those skids against the Bruins.

The entire team had to come together to make the push. The offense had to apply pressure and attempt to generate chances in the zone, the defense had to slow down the Boston offense and keep them away from the net, and Ben Bishop had to be lights out when the puck did get through and chances arose.

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All of that came together to create a beautiful mixture that granted the Stars the win. Dallas outshot Boston 37-23, dominated the face-off dot with a win percentage of 62.2 percent, and led the hits category 33-23. Bishop posted his second shutout of the season (his first since opening night) and was solid down the stretch, making a few key saves on some quality chances in the third period.

Perhaps the most important thing about the gritty win is that the Dallas Stars didn’t let anything phase them. In years past, going 0/4 on the power play and heavily outshooting the opposition as the game went along would be discouraging factors for the Stars. But Dallas continued digging and chipping away.

And when things got chippy in the third period, they welcomed the physicality. Jason Spezza got tangled up in just his second career fight as a Star, Roman Polak delivered a few heated uppercuts to a bent-over Torey Krug, and the other Stars got into their own entanglements when needed. The Stars were aggressive and determined throughout the entire game, and nothing shook that confidence.

And 1:34 into overtime, Dickinson lifted them to a critical win.

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This gritty performance showed just how many faces this Dallas Stars team possesses. They can win high-scoring affairs, defensive showdowns, and even games like this one where it’s simply a matter of outlasting the opposition. Their composure wasn’t rattled and they continued pressing on.

This is important because the Stars will likely run into each of these situations over the next 63 games. That should be a welcomed boost of confidence for this new team in their first six weeks of action.

The Stars proved on Friday night that they have the weapons and the mindset to win against any opponent, regardless of the scenario. Not many teams can do what they did against the Bruins. It was a physical and mental battle of supremacy, and Dallas won out.

They now sit at a record of 10-7-2 with 22 points. That’s good enough for the first wild card spot in the Western Conference and puts them two points out of third and five points out of first in the Central division.

This season is going to be a grind. This newly-formed Dallas Stars team already knows that. They’ve been tested on various occasions and have been forced to adapt, adjust, and reconfigure. And so far, they are still in the thick of the fight.

Friday night’s win was nothing more than another serving of resilience and confidence tossed into the team’s batter.

And with that, it’s time to hit the road yet again. Next up: New York.