Dallas Stars: Ability To Win In Different Ways Shows Team's Progress

Monday night marked a fifth straight win for the Dallas Stars as they defeated the Arizona Coyotes 5-4. But, unlike their four prior victories, the Stars had to adapt and take a different route to get two points. It just goes to show how far this team has come and where they could go.

The Dallas Stars did something on Monday night that 17 teams had failed to do against the Arizona Coyotes through the first four months of this season: they defeated the Coyotes in regulation after initially trailing at the start of the third period.

Going into the final frame of Monday’s game at the American Airlines Center, Arizona owned a record of 16-0-1 when leading after 40 minutes. And through the first two periods against the Stars, the Coyotes looked to be on a winning track.

That didn’t bode well for a Stars team that was attempting to pick up a fifth straight win and build significant momentum as they prepared for a five-game road trip. Dallas merely hung on by a thread in the first two periods, doing everything in their power to keep it close. Arizona simply seemed to want it more in a game that was poised to shift the standing of both teams in the Western Conference playoff race.

The entire game seemed to come to a climax when Brett Ritchie was given a game misconduct for a dangerous boarding play against Alex Goligoski. That penalty came with 2:20 left in the second period and gave the Coyotes, who were already holding a 2-1 lead, five minutes of power play time that would bleed over into the third period.

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Not only did that put the Stars in a tight spot with 11 forwards (10 if you count Jason Dickinson‘s limited playing time after blocking a shot with his foot earlier in the game), but it gave Arizona some momentum to carry into the final frame.

Dallas managed to kill off the first 2:20 of the penalty and enter second intermission with the one-goal deficit. But, as they headed to the locker room, there was a certain air of unfamiliarity within the contest.

Since Jan. 19, the Dallas Stars had won four consecutive games. They posted a 4-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets just prior to a 10-day schedule break and dominated every aspect of the game from the opening puck drop. Upon ending the break, they won a gritty and narrow 1-0 game over the Buffalo Sabres. Two days later, they wrapped up a six-game homestand with a 3-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild that propelled them back into third place in the Central division. And 24 hours after that, the Stars secured an impressive 3-1 win in Nashville against the Predators.

Each of those wins came in a different situation, but the Stars used one common thread in each victory: weathering the storm early and using stellar defensive play and goaltending to keep the opponent at bay before scoring one or two goals to seal the game off. That weathering had Dallas either leading or tied for all but 1:36 through the previous 240 minutes of action.

But on Monday night, they entered the second intermission with a more challenging scenario on their hands. A 2-1 deficit, a long penalty in need of more killing, and an Arizona Coyotes team looking to get within one point of the wild card picture stood in their way.

As the third period got underway, it looked as though the Dallas Stars had finally met their most worthy challenger of the past 16 days. But, it didn’t take long for chaos to ensue.

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The Coyotes committed two penalties within the first 1:52 of the period thanks to some impressive penalty killing by the Stars. The infractions gave Dallas a 4-on-3 advantage, and it only took John Klingberg 36 seconds to find the back of the net on the power play and pull the Stars to even. 36 seconds after the equalizer, Radek Faksa scored on a 5-on-4 power play to grab the lead for Dallas. And 35 seconds following that goal, Mattias Janmark scored on a feed from Jason Dickinson to make it a 4-2 lead for the Stars.

This offensive explosion occurred in a span of 1:11 and put Dallas in a comfortable spot not even four minutes into the final period. There wasn’t much time to react, though.

Just a little over three minutes later, Arizona tallied two goals in a span of 1:01 to tie the game at 4-4. As soon as the momentum seemed to shift in the Stars’ favor, it seemed to immediately return to the Coyotes’ side.

But the entire game came to an almost storybook ending when the Stars’ big three (Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Alexander Radulov) wrapped the game up. Radulov won a puck battle behind the Arizona net and kicked it to Benn, who fed it to Seguin in the slot. No. 91 put the game away with the game-winning goal. It was his fifth goal and seventh point in the last five games and was the first time that each member of the trio had tallied a point on a goal since Dec. 18.

The Stars exploded for five goals, had to rally from behind and break a tie in the final 20 minutes, and defeated a hungry and somewhat desperate team stuck in the thick of the playoff hunt. There’s not a much more motivating note that the team could ride out on as they spend the next two weeks on the road.

But, through the crazy 60-minute rollercoaster that had the Dallas Stars staring defeat in the face on various occasions, they proved something. Throughout all of the ups, downs, twists, and turns, the Stars proved that they can win in any way necessary.

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The Stars’ strategy through the first four wins of this current streak was one that revolved around structured defense and sturdy goaltending. Ben Bishop posted a .931 save percentage against the Winnipeg Jets, a .955 against Minnesota, and a 30-save shutout against Buffalo. Anton Khudobin put up a spectacular .974 save percentage against the Nashville Predators. Weaved into their impressive showings was a consistent and fluid effort by the Stars’ defenders, limiting high-danger chances and keeping the opponent’s zone time minimized.

Meanwhile, the Dallas Stars offense would find a way to capitalize once or twice and secure the narrow victory.

That didn’t happen on Monday night. Ben Bishop was good, but not great. The defense gave up 42 shots against. The Stars racked up 23 total penalty minutes. All of that combined to Arizona controlling the game as the final period opened up.

But that didn’t matter to the Stars, because they found another way to win. They won using brute offensive force. That included going 3/4 on the power play, even though Arizona entered the game boasting the NHL’s best penalty kill unit. The depth scorers were engaged, with Roope Hintz, Faksa, and Janmark all tallying goals. All in all, 12 different Stars skaters tallied a point.

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The penalty kill also finished on a perfect note, going 4/4 on the night and keeping the Coyotes from building a bigger gap. All in all, the Dallas Stars rose to the challenge presented to them and adapted to win by a new style. They defeated goaltender Darcy Kuemper, who hadn’t lost a game since Dec. 30, 2018 and owned a record of 6-0-3 since the beginning of the 2019 year.

That’s a testament both to where this team has come from and where they could be going. In one of the most important times of the regular season, the Stars are finally getting it right. Through the first half of the year, Dallas could only win in a certain way: defensive perseverance. Even that didn’t work at times, considering the Stars were close to the .500 mark and the playoff wall just a handful of games ago.

But now, the Stars are adapting. They showed last night that defensive showdowns aren’t their only way to success. When they need an offensive assault, they can get it, whether at even strength or on the power play. When the game and a win streak is on the line, they can adjust properly and do what it takes to get a win. The Dallas Stars from three months ago (or even three weeks ago, for that matter) didn’t know how to do that.

This very much feels like a different team. These Stars have won five in a row and have done so in just about every situation imaginable. Holding onto a narrow lead, breaking a tie late in the third, or coming back when the odds seem stacked against them.

“That attitude of ‘we can’ is beginning to permeate through everybody,” Stars coach Jim Montgomery said following the game.

Whatever the scenario, this Dallas Stars team is finding a way. No hockey team wants to face a club that knows how to do that.

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And if the Stars can keep playing to their strengths as well as adapting on the fly, this may very well be only the beginning of something incredible.

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