Dallas Stars: Defeating Wild A Strong First Step In Important Stretch

The Dallas Stars continued their strong final push to the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Thursday night with a dominant win in the most important game of the season. But with that being said, they have to find a way to keep their focus locked in for another pivotal matchup on Friday night.

It was a game where the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild desperately needed two points. One team was trying to pad their lead in the playoff race while the other was simply trying to get back into the picture.

And on Thursday night, the Stars once again found a way to prevail. They dug in against a desperate team on the road and pulled off a two-point effort. The win pushed them ahead of the St. Louis Blues for third place in the Central division and has them on track to make a run at second place.

But the win is about so much more than that.

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To start things off, it was a game of firsts in many different regards. The headline story for the game had to do with Ben Bishop breaking the franchise shutout streak which had previously been held by Ed Belfour at 219:26. After posting shutouts in starts against New York, Colorado, and Buffalo over the past 10 days, Bishop hopped into the net one last time and pushed the streak to 230:53 before exiting with an injury in the middle of the second period.

After Radek Faksa tallied a goal to open the scoring early in the second period, Roope Hintz scored 74 seconds later to make it 2-0. It marked the first time in his young NHL career that Hintz has scored three goals in a two-game span.

68 seconds later, Joel L’Esperance scored his first career NHL goal on a beautiful redirect from a Jamie Benn shot.

Jason Zucker scored on the power play to get Minnesota on the board, but that’s where the Minnesota offense stopped. Alexander Radulov scored an empty-net goal late in the third period to cap off the 4-1 victory.

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The Dallas Stars were at peak performance in the defensive end, giving up almost no high-danger chances throughout the entire contest. Anton Khudobin filled in for Bishop and turned in an admirable 14/15 save night. The offense clicked yet again, scoring four goals by using three different lines.

With the two points, Dallas reclaimed third place in the Central division. They now have a five-point lead on the Western Conference playoff wall and kept the Wild outside of the picture with a regulation win. They have games in hand on just about every team around them in the standings and now sit just six points out of second (held by Nashville) with two games in hand.

Everything that could have gone well, did go well. And in the most important games of the regular season campaign, the Stars shone brightly.

And yet, there’s no time to relish in the win.

Beating Minnesota was an important first step in a critical 48-hour stretch for the Dallas Stars. Upon securing the two points, the Stars traveled back to Dallas to prepare for a showdown on Friday night with the Vegas Golden Knights.

This is a Vegas team that is 6-3-1 in its past 10 games. It’s a Vegas team that currently sits in a similar position as the Stars (third place in their division and trying to keep a gap between themselves and the wild card race). It’s also a Vegas team that downed the Stars back on Feb. 26 behind a dominant third period performance.

With all of that being said, the road is by no means lightening up at this point. The Stars still have a dozen games remaining in their push to the playoffs. There’s a lot of room for potential slipping that Dallas has to avoid in the final three weeks of the season.

And that all starts tonight with the Golden Knights. The Stars are 2-6-0 on the second night of a back-to-back so far this year, though they have won two of their past four.

Dallas will also be without their starter in Ben Bishop, who is still recovering from an injury suffered against the Wild. Khudobin will take the net with Landon Bow serving as the backup.

This Golden Knights team needs points just as badly as the Stars. The difference between the two is that while Dallas played last night in Minnesota, Vegas has been off since Sunday after losing to Calgary.

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It’s also the opening matchup of a five-game homestand for the Dallas Stars. They are going for their third win in a row, seventh in their past eight, and eighth in their past ten. They have a hot streak going at the perfect time of the year, but there’s still a need for more. At this time of the year, one critical slip can sometimes undo weeks of progress.

The win in Minnesota was an impressive first step in pulling a dominant note from this stretch. The Stars did what they had to do in an important game and defeated a team in desperate need of points.

Now, they will have to do it again on tired legs and without their record-setting starting goaltender against a fresh and challenging Vegas club while they go for the two-day sweep.

The puck drops at 7:00 p.m. at the American Airlines Center.