Dallas Stars Earn Important Point Against Canucks, Still Need Turnaround

The Dallas Stars found a way to rally from a tumultuous start on Sunday afternoon to pick up a big point against the Vancouver Canucks. And while they were able to hold their spot in the standings, there is a need for more.

Let’s rewind to March 25, 2018 for a second. It’s a Sunday afternoon and the Dallas Stars are in serious trouble.

The Stars are in the midst of a seven-game losing streak (0-5-2) and have watched their playoff hopes transition from probable to doubtful in a span of 14 days. After putting together a winless road trip, they are back home for game two of a three-game homestand. Their opponent? A struggling Vancouver Canucks team that has been far behind in the playoff race for a while.

A win was not only needed, but also crucial to keep the Stars’ hopes alive. They were already stuck in the mathematics game (calculating how many points they needed and how many points they needed their opponent to lose) and were slipping closer to extinction.

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And then they dropped yet another bomb against the Canucks. The 4-1 loss was the Stars’ eighth in a row and pushed them further down the totem pole. By the time it was all said and done, it was a game that ultimately led to their downfall. It was a loss against a struggling team that helped define another year of falling short of their postseason hopes.

Fast forward back to the present. It’s March 17, 2019 and the Dallas Stars are in game two of a five-game homestand. Their opponent? A struggling Vancouver Canucks team stuck near the bottom of the Western Conference.

And even though the Stars didn’t carry a seven-game losing skid into Sunday’s game, it seemed like a win was critical.

Dallas had just wrapped up yet another promising week that saw them go 2-1-0, including two important wins on the road against Buffalo and Minnesota and a hard-fought loss at home against Vegas. Ben Bishop broke the franchise record for a shutout streak, Roope Hintz went on a scoring tear with four goals in three games, and the Stars fought their way back within reach of third in the Central division.

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But the loss against Vegas on Friday brought another obstacle to their final push to the playoffs. With the defeat, Dallas dropped back into the first wild card spot and had to once again keep an eye on Arizona, Minnesota, and the other teams who were keeping pace just behind. In addition, they had to keep an eye on St. Louis as their chase for third continued.

With all of that piling up, the Dallas Stars set their focus on the Canucks. It was an opportunity to capitalize against a struggling team and pick up two big points that could push them back up the standings.

But through the first 38 minutes of the game, it looked to be a mirror image of their catastrophe from almost one year ago.

Tim Schaller opened up the scoring with his first NHL goal just 52 seconds into the game and put the Canucks up 1-0. It was the second consecutive game where Anton Khudobin and the Stars let up a goal in the first minute of the first period. 10 minutes later, Schaller scored again and pushed the deficit to 2-0.

Meanwhile, Dallas struggled to get anything going. Sure, they put up 15 shots against Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom in the opening frame, but couldn’t find a way to capitalize. The Stars went 0/1 on the power play in the first 20 minutes and found themselves in a substantial hole against a team playing loose hockey.

The second period was much of the same. The Stars kept pouring shots on goal, killed off a penalty, and got a critical save from Khudobin on an Elias Pettersson penalty shot. But they just couldn’t find a way to break Markstrom. That was until Jamie Benn scored on a wrist shot to the far-side post to break the shutout bid with just 22 seconds to go in the period.

As the third period began winding down, the Dallas Stars still needed a goal. They had lost a 2-1 game two nights prior at the hands of Vegas despite having many chances to tie it up in the third period.

With 3:50 to go, Taylor Fedun took on the role of hero as he scored on a slap shot from the blue line to tie the game at 2-2.

Following the rally, the game progressed to overtime and eventually to the shootout, where the Stars lost in the fourth round.

“Luckily, we got the point. At least we’re climbing the standings. Every game is going to be really tough right now. Some of the teams we’re going to play, they’re going to play probably loose hockey or whatever.” – Anton Khudobin, postgame 3/17

But, it’s still a point. If Dallas had fallen victim to the early lead by the Canucks and dropped a dud on home ice, their situation would look vastly different on Monday. They would be just one point ahead of Arizona, who plays tonight against Tampa Bay, and would be in danger of falling to the second wild card spot. They would also be at least two games back of the Blues for third place in the division.

Instead, they rallied and kept their footing as a result. The Stars are 37-29-6 with 80 points and sit two points ahead of the second wild card spot, three points ahead of the playoff wall, and two points back of third in the Central.

A point is a point, but this one definitely means more under the circumstances. It was a big rally at a critical point in the season that helped the Dallas Stars hold their ground. And with the Blues losing in the shootout and the Wild losing in overtime, the standings stood pat.

But there’s still a need for more. While the Stars picked up a point thanks to a rally against adversity, they still lost a point that could have helped in the long run. They now sit at 80 points with a maximum of 20 points left on the table (10 games) in the 2018-19 regular season.

The race is tightening up as the NHL closes in on the homestretch of the season. And though the Stars fought to pick up a valuable point, they are 0-1-1 on this current homestand. They have three more games coming up against a Panthers team trying to make a late run, an Avalanche team trying to keep pace just behind the Stars, and a Penguins team hoping to solidify their third-place spot in the Metropolitan division.

That’s a tough slate at this point in the year, with each game carrying more weight than the last.

So while Sunday night may not have granted two big points to the Dallas Stars, it gave them one. They were able to keep hold on their position in the race and look ahead to the next game. And that’s what reigns supreme at this point in the year: looking ahead.

“What’s been has been,” said forward Mattias Janmark back on March 9. “There’s a new game ahead and we have to look forward to the next game. If we were to lose some games in a row, we have to just do the same and focus on the next game. We can’t afford to look back; we have to win the next game every time. There’s always two points on the line and it’s huge for the playoff race, so we have to look forward.”

Sunday night’s game was another rollercoaster of emotion in this unpredictable 2018-19 Dallas Stars campaign.

But, a point is a point. And at this point in the season, that’s exactly what the Stars need.