Dallas Stars: Final Thoughts On A Complete 4-0 Win Over Colorado
By Josh Clark
The streak kept on rolling for the Dallas Stars on Thursday night as they blanked the Colorado Avalanche in a 4-0 final. The win pushed Dallas into a four-game win streak and kept their playoff hopes trending in the right direction.
Thursday night’s game was a big one for the Dallas Stars. And though it took some sparking of emotions and surging from returning players, they found a way to rise to the occasion.
With playoff implications on the line in the Western Conference, the Stars welcomed the Colorado Avalanche to the American Airlines Center for a Central division showdown. Dallas sat in the first wild card spot in the West and owned a narrow three-point lead on the Avalanche, who were chasing in the postseason race.
And through all of the high implications and importance, the Stars secured a dominant 4-0 win and set the tempo for the entirety of the game. Alexander Radulov netted his first NHL hat trick, Bishop posted a second consecutive shutout, and the Dallas Stars once again showed just how dangerous of a team they can be.
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Game recap
The first period started out at a relatively fast pace, with both the Stars and Avalanche generating offensive zone time and scoring chances. Each team also had a power play opportunity, though neither side ended up posting a shot. With 3:46 left in the period, Alexander Radulov deflected a Jamie Benn shot past Semyon Varlamov to open the scoring. Dallas entered the first intermission with a 1-0 lead, while the Avalanche owned a 13-11 advantage in shots.
The middle frame opened with another frenetic pace as both teams continued to push the tempo. With 11:05 to go in the second period, the Dallas Stars struck again as Radulov scored on a seeing-eye shot to move the score to 2-0. The Stars killed a penalty off midway through the period to keep the Avalanche off the board and enter the intermission with a two-goal lead.
The Stars jumped out of the gate in the third period and once again brought a heavy dose of energy on offense to start the final frame. Just a little over five minutes into the period, Jamie Benn scored from the slot on a nice feed from Jason Dickinson to push the lead to a dominant 3-0. With the game winding down, the Stars held their ground and kept applying pressure. Radulov scored an empty net goal with 2:58 remaining to tally his first career hat trick and wrap up a 4-0 win for Dallas.
Thoughts and Observations
Quick off the draw
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This game meant a lot to the Dallas Stars, and arguably meant even more to the Colorado Avalanche. With both teams knotted closely in the standings and a “four-point game” taking effect, both teams needed a win (preferably in regulation).
In order to get that win, a fast start was needed. And while both teams were quick to get going, the Stars found the upper hand in the first period. They set the emotional tone, throwing the body around and playing with a certain swagger out of the gate that was unusual to see. Moments later, Radulov scored the opening goal on a beautiful pass from Jamie Benn and the Stars were off and running.
The quick start was imperative to pushing the Avalanche back on their heels, and Dallas found a way to take control and set the pace for the rest of the game.
Radulov quickly brushes off Tuesday incident
There’s not really a better way that Radulov could have bounced back from a tough situation. On Tuesday morning, he was late to the team’s morning skate at the American Airlines Center. As a result of team policy, he was scratched in the game against the New York Rangers.
The healthy scratch started a debate on social media between Dallas Stars fans. Should the team scratch one of their best scorers in a critical game during the playoff push? Is any player above the rules in a certain situation?
The situation became even more intriguing when Radulov declined to speak with the media at both the morning skate on Tuesday and Thursday.
But after scoring his first NHL hat trick in his return to to the lineup that helped Dallas secure a dominant win, Radulov opened up about the scratch and took accountability for his actions.
“It’s fine,” Radulov said about being scratched. “We’re all humans. I just overslept and came in late and it was past the time that I was supposed to be here. The rules are the rules for everybody so I think it’s in the past and we’re done with it and it’s okay.”
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In his first game back, he was electric and pushed the Dallas offense forward. But in the postgame interview, he was quick to point out that it’s a full-team effort at this point in the season.
“It’s always nice to bounce back and have a game like that,” Radulov mentioned. “But like I said, you just have to do the little things to help your team to win. When you get a chance to score a goal, it’s always nice. The most important thing is getting the win.”
It was an incredible bounce-back effort from no. 47 in the face of adversity.
With that, he picked up where he left off
But it wasn’t just the goal scoring. Radulov’s effort throughout the entire game was admirable and he came up big on both sides of the puck while helping the Stars surge ahead in the game and, inevitably, in the standings.
He finished the night with three goals, a +3 rating, and led the team in shots on goal with five. On the defensive side, he blocked three shots and had a takeaway. With the performance, Radulov now has 20 goals and 54 points in 55 games played.
“Rads is a competitive guy, so that lit a fire under him,” said Stars forward Jason Dickinson. “He’s not going to take that lightly. He wants to be a great player and he wants to do big things for us, so it’s no surprise that Rads comes out and has a game like that.”
“He’s a great competitor and we expected him to play at a high level tonight,” added head coach Jim Montgomery after the game. “You could tell, he had an intensity about him the way he was practicing while he was out.”
"“That’s two times now that guys have missed games, they get a little bit of rest, and they come back with hat tricks. Maybe there’s something to a little bit of rest.” -Jim Montgomery on Radulov’s hat trick"
Bishop continues soaring
Ben Bishop didn’t face a lot of high-danger chances against the Avalanche. But when he did, he was lights out yet again in the crease.
Bishop looked calm and composed for much of the game, manning the crease and directing traffic in the defensive zone while Colorado tried to come up with an answer. By the time it was all said and done, he had his fifth shutout of the season, stopping all 31 shots that he faced. It’s his second consecutive shutout after blanking the Rangers on Tuesday evening at the American Airlines Center.
“Great, like he’s been mostly every time,” Lindell said about the goalie. “He’s a really good goaltender and helps out the [defense] a lot and talks. He’s like one extra guy out there when he plays with the puck and he helps so much with the breakout. And obviously, he makes big saves every night.”
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No. 30 is heating up as the season goes along and has quietly amassed some of the best numbers of his NHL career. If he keeps playing to this current level, there’s no telling where the Dallas Stars could go.
Dickinson making a name for himself
With Radek Faksa missing his first game of the 2018-19 season on Thursday while recovering from a neck injury, Jason Dickinson slotted into his spot on the second line alongside Jamie Benn and Blake Comeau. Throughout the game, it was obvious that no. 16 took full hold of the opportunity.
Dickinson skated a career-high 20:22 in the game against Colorado and made the most of each shift. He finished the night with a crafty assist to Benn in the slot, a +1 rating, three shots on goal, and skated 2:04 while shorthanded (the most of any Dallas forward). In addition, his line was matched up primarily against the Avalanche’s top line (Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen), which is the highest-scoring line in the NHL.
“It wasn’t perfect and they had some chances,” Dickinson mentioned. “But, I think all-in-all, beating them 4-0 is a good sign. It took all three of us on my line and the [defense] we were out there with to shut them down because they are a highly-talented line.”
When asked about if he enjoyed the challenge of shutting down a high-flying offensive line, he responded:
“Definitely. That’s the kind of stuff that I get excited for. [Tyler Seguin] might get excited to score goals and obviously for myself, that’s still exciting. But the challenge of stopping those guys from doing their game is just as exciting.”
It was a big moment for the 23-year-old and he took advantage of the chance.
“The job Jason Dickinson did was incredible,” Monty mentioned after the game. “He was on top of pucks and he was better offensively than he’s been lately. I think he was gaining confidence throughout the game and he relished the role. We have a lot of confidence in him and the fact that we have him and Faksa is a huge plus for our team to have two guys like that.”
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Mile High Sticking
Gaining retribution after months of waiting
The Dallas Stars lost their first two contests against the Avalanche this season, and neither came in an “acceptable” fashion. On Nov. 24, the Stars owned a late 2-1 lead in Denver but coughed up two quick goals in the final minutes of the game to drop a 3-2 final. A few weeks later, they dropped a high-scoring 6-4 decision in Denver to give Colorado the upper hand.
On Thursday night, however, the Stars took control and were determined to not let success slip from their grasp for a third time.
“I think we learned those couple of games that we played against them [in Denver],” Lindell said. “How we screwed the lead in the one game and the other game they scored five or six goals. It was a lot to learn and I think we responded well tonight.”
“Those games left a bitter taste in our mouths,” said Dickinson. “Those were points we let slip away from us and we did not want to let that happen again. Obviously, they are right behind us in the hunt, so this game was huge for both teams. It’s nice that we were able to get out of it without going to overtime.”
Dallas picked up their first win against the Avalanche this season and will look to even the season series in two weeks when they welcome the Avs back to the American Airlines Center.
Dallas defense shutting down a desperate offense
The Dallas Stars entered Thursday’s game with the third-lowest goals against average of any team in the NHL. So, playing a strong defensive game isn’t necessarily a shock. And yet, when going up against one of the best lines in hockey and a team that needed goals and points, Dallas rose to the occasion.
“They don’t want to play a hard game,” Dickinson mentioned. “Those guys want to play with speed and they want to move off the puck. If we lay the body on them, it makes it hard for them to do that. It was definitely an unspoken part of our game.”
The defense limited Colorado to just 31 shots, gave up very few dangerous chances, and stumped their power play attack. In addition, they didn’t give the Avalanche a chance to claw back in the final frame even after they had built a 3-0 lead.
"“I think the whole team kind of did their job. When a game like this happens and you get success, it’s the whole team. The defense played strong, no question, but I think that all of the forwards came back, blocked shots, and got the puck out.” -Alexander Radulov on the team defense"
Streaking against the Central
Quick note: the Dallas Stars are now 11-7-2 against the Central division. They have at least one win against each team in the division so far this season and are riding a four-game win streak within the division. They are also 7-1-1 in their last nine games against the Central.
With the need for divisional success being critical in a tight playoff race at this point in the season, the Stars are shining and finding ways to win. That’s impressive.
The surge to the postseason continues
With the win, the Dallas Stars now sit at 35-27-5 on the season with 75 points.
“A whole team battle and a huge two points for us,” said Radulov. “We’re happy today but there’s lots of games left and it’s still really close in the standings. Every game is huge for us and we really need those points.”
But with the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild both winning tonight as well, the Stars didn’t necessarily gain any ground in the playoff picture. Instead, they separated themselves further from the wall and kept growing their own hopes.
At the end of the day, it’s how they did it that is the most important. Dallas dominated every aspect of the contest against the Avalanche and earned the win in a complete performance. They were more explosive on offense, more structured on defense, and had the better goaltender. To top it all off, they played with physicality and emotion in a game that meant a lot. It was another playoff-caliber game and they once again responded with a playoff-caliber performance.
“It’s one of them,” Montgomery noted about whether it was their most complete win of the season. “I think if you consider the moment and how important the game was, the emotion that we played with for 60 minutes of really hard hockey, and we had some big plays within it.”
“We’ve got no panic in this room,” Dickinson added.
The Dallas Stars will be back to practice on Friday as they prepare to wrap up a three-game homestand on Saturday against the Chicago Blackhawks. It’s another divisional game and another chance to pick up valuable points in the standings race.
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Thursday night was simply another big and promising step in the right direction. And with 15 games left on the regular season schedule, you cannot ask for much more.