Dallas Stars: Final Thoughts On An Admirable 3-1 Win Over Minnesota

After starting a season-long homestand with three consecutive losses, the Dallas Stars broke even on Friday night. They defeated the Minnesota Wild 3-1, picking up their third win in a row and starting the month of February with some impressive momentum.

The Dallas Stars are back in third place in the Central division. That’s big news.

After losing three games in a row to open up a six-game homestand prior to an extended break, the Stars wrapped up the stand with three consecutive wins. Their last one came on Friday night as they defeated the Minnesota Wild 3-1. The win pushed Dallas back into third place in the division and helped them start the month of February on a high note.

Game recap

The first period didn’t offer much in terms of exhilarating action, but they rarely do when the Dallas Stars are involved. Even so, it was a period that the Stars found a way to win. They outshot the Wild 11-5, dominated the face-off circle with a win percentage of 61 percent, and had three takeaways. It did seem as though the Stars needed the first few minutes to figure Minnesota out, but they were off and running by the 15-minute mark.

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The middle frame was much like the first one in the fact that Dallas continued to control the pace. It wasn’t long into the second period (3:12, to be exact) when the Stars found the back of the net to open the scoring in the game. Andrew Cogliano deflected a Roman Polak shot from the point past Devan Dubnyk to get the Stars on the board. Less than six minutes later, however, Cogliano found himself in the box on a hi-sticking call as Brad Hunt tallied a power play goal to tie it at 1-1. But still, the second period ended with Dallas owning a 25-12 shots advantage and plenty of momentum.

Both teams hopped on the attack in the third period as the Stars and Wild looked for the game-sealing goal. There were a handful of chances in both ends, but nothing fell until 7:42 left on the clock. That’s when Tyler Seguin scored on a slap shot from the right boards to put Dallas in front 2-1. They would end up holding the line as Minnesota put together one last push, and Seguin scored on the empty net with 24 seconds to go to seal the 3-1 victory.

Thoughts and Observations

All of the makings of a 2018-19 Dallas Stars victory

Let’s get this out of the way off of the bat: the Dallas Stars controlled this game and deserved to win. They did so by trusting their process and letting their execution do the work.

“Just trust it,” said Stars forward Tyler Seguin. “Individually and as a team, we just stuck with the process all game. I thought after 40 minutes, we deserved to win that game. We found a way.”

But within the game, it was very much a trademark win for the 2018-19 Dallas Stars. In other words, it was a defensive battle, with the Dallas blue line and Ben Bishop coming up big at certain points. There was a score of 0-0 after the first period, the Stars gave up very few high-danger chances to their opponent, and they controlled the pace of the game. They generated a good number of high-quality chances, but only cashed in twice at even strength. And yet, they did enough to win.

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“Again, I thought another 60 minutes by us,” said Stars coach Jim Montgomery. “Our attention to detail has been really good here in the last two games. We’re not giving up much. We’re creating good chances, not as much as maybe we’d like to, but a real good team effort. That’s not an easy team to generate against and the battle at the net front we thought was key, and we won it.”

A quiet start to the game, solid goaltending and defense, controlling the pace and generating some chances, and pulling out a win in a tight game. That’s 2018-19 Dallas Stars hockey for you. And right now, it’s translating into wins. A team can’t ask for much more than that.

Gurianov and Hintz earning their minutes

Standing out yet again in the Dallas offense was the play of rookie forwards Denis Gurianov and Roope Hintz. While skating on the fourth line with Brett Ritchie for the third game in a row, the two forwards continued using their explosive speed to generate offensive zone time and scoring chances. Both players finished the night with two shots in less than 14 minutes of ice time.

“I just came here to help our team to win,” said Stars forward Denis Gurianov. “I’m ready to do what coach tells me and just trying to do my best and trying to skate hard and use my strong side.”

The two are continuing to make a name for themselves and could very well be forcing the hand of the Dallas management to keep them around for the long run. They are churning the fourth line for the Stars and are helping the entire team play at a faster and more dominant pace. How are they doing it?

“Just trying to find the open ice and get the puck and make some plays,” Gurianov added.

Short, sweet, and impressive. Keep an eye out for no. 34 and no. 24 going forward.

Big Ben putting on a masterful stretch

The Stars received another beautiful showing from their crease on Friday night. Ben Bishop stopped 21/22 shots faced and would likely have posted the shutout had the Wild not found a goal in the dying seconds of a four-minute power play.

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Bishop picked up his third win in a row and has only allowed three goals against in that span (and posted a shutout against Buffalo). His presence in the crease continues to provide the Stars with stability and dominance, and he is buying the Stars a chance to win whenever he is in the crease.

“Bish and the guys did a great job and we just tried to keep going,” Gurianov mentioned.

He’s now 18-12-2 on the year with a .925 save percentage and 2.25 goals against average. Three big wins in a row from Big Ben and the Stars are back in third in the division as a result. No. 30 continues to impress when it matters most.

Cogliano gets his first in Victory Green

After five games with his new team, Andrew Cogliano found the back of the net for the first time while wearing Victory Green on Friday night. Cogliano deflected a Roman Polak shot from the blue line to open the scoring for Dallas and pick up the fourth goal of his season overall. And as the game approached the final horn, he tallied an assist on Seguin’s empty-net goal.

“Yeah, good,” said Cogliano following the game. “It’s just good to contribute. At this point, it doesn’t matter who scores; it’s all about the win. I kind of needed it with the four-minute minor. But like I said, it’s all about winning at this point.”

Cogliano was acquired in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks back on Jan. 14. And while he wasn’t necessarily brought in to be a regular goal scorer, his contributions will only help the Dallas depth cause going forward.

“It’s huge,” Montgomery said about Cogliano getting his first goal with his new team, “because he plays a relentless game, we really like his game, and it’s good to see him get rewarded because he plays the right way, his shift length is short. He’s a real good example for all of us and again, like you said, with the speed and tenacity that he has, it allows us to play a relentless style.”

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Defensive battles? No problem

On Wednesday night, the Dallas Stars gritted out a tight 1-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres. And, if you don’t count the empty-net goal, the Stars once again pulled out a close, low-scoring game on Friday.

It’s becoming a common theme for the Stars to win games centered around defense. Part of that has to do with their defense owning the second-best goals against average in the NHL (2.56). But the other part has to do with the Stars being okay with grinding out those close games.

“Like I said, just trust,” Seguin mentioned about the defensive surge. “The buy-in is key right now and it starts in practice. It’s been preached all year, but we’re starting to see the rewards and the benefits of it. We’re comfortable winning games 1-0. As a goal scorer, I’d like to win 5-1, but I’ll take the 1-0, too.”

“Sticking to what we are,” added Montgomery about the key to the team’s consistency on defense.  “I mean, that’s what we are, right? If you have good defense, you’re always gonna be in every game. And if the goal scoring comes, we’re going to start winning games by a couple of goals to several goals. And it will come, because if you play that way, we were just missing on a couple of odd-man rushes in every period.”

Winning defensive battles is a strength that this team possesses. When it’s 1-0 or 2-1 late in the third period, this Dallas Stars team knows how to shut the door. That’s an impressive skill that not many teams possess.

A big “playoff” win that can create momentum

The word in the locker room and at the practices leading up to Friday night’s contest was that it was “a playoff game.” So, when the puck dropped against the Wild tonight, the Stars proved to be ready to win what felt like a postseason contest.

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“This is playoff hockey at this point,” said Andrew Cogliano following the game. “Is there a ton of experience in here? No. I think we have younger guys and have guys that have come up and played. But, at this point in the season, those are the games you are going to get. So, when you start winning those games, you gain confidence and then you start really believing you’re a good team and you can do some good things. Those are the games you want to win at this point of the season.”

“Now that it’s the last 30 games, it’s playoff hockey,” added Montgomery. “The intensity has gone up. That was a playoff game tonight.”

For a team that has 31 games to go and plenty separating them from being a lock for the playoffs, it was a big win that showed just what this team can do. In addition, it helped in establishing some momentum for the final push to the postseason.

“These are the kinds of games that get you ready for playoffs,” Seguin added. “I think that’s what we say about the Central. Everyone talks about how it’s gotta be the hardest division in the league, if not sports. But when you come down to the last 30 games or so, you’re playing playoff games already. So, that was a good one to win.

A solid way to kick off a tough month

The Dallas Stars have a challenging February schedule staring them down as they prepare to make a push to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Their schedule over the next 27 days includes games against streaking teams like the Nashville Predators (three times), Tampa Bay Lightning, and Vegas Golden Knights. Not only that, but it also plots them against teams near them in the Western Conference playoff standings.

So, a win against the Wild that jumbled the standings and pushed Dallas ahead of the pack has to provide some motivation as the team prepares to endure a tough slate over the next four weeks.

“We have a lot of hockey to play and it’s only going to get tougher,” Cogliano said. “I think guys are starting to realize that you have to win games like that to make the playoffs. So, hopefully we can continue with that.”

Heading out to Tennessee

While Friday night was exciting and rewarding, the road only gets tougher from here for Dallas.

The Stars will board a plane on Friday night and head to Nashville in preparation for a Saturday night showdown with the Predators. Dallas is now back in third place in the Central division after defeating the Wild and sit ten points back of Nashville, who currently owns second, with two games in hand.

Dallas is 1-0-1 against the Predators so far this year and won their last contest at Bridgestone Arena thanks to a historic shutout performance from Anton Khudobin in net. Saturday night presents a chance to gain ground in the Central race as well as create separation, but the Stars will have to do so on tired legs.

“It’s tough,” said Gurianov. “Two straight games and [four] days with three games. So, guys get some rest so I think we’re ready to go. We’ll get some rest tonight and be ready for tomorrow.”

This will be the Stars’ first back-to-back since Dec. 12 and 13 when they played Anaheim and San Jose during a four-game road trip. They lost both games by a combined score of 9-5.

But this looks like a different Dallas Stars team. This is a Stars team that has won three games in a row, continues to stifle their opponents with sound and structured defense, and is back in a top-three spot in the division after a “playoff” win against a divisional opponent. That cannot be overlooked.

“We’ve been consistent in these last two games,” said Montgomery. “We gotta just keep staying with the same preparation, we gotta keep the same attitude, and we gotta keep believing.”