After losing eight consecutive Game 1s, the Dallas Stars have turned around and won two in a row.
On Wednesday night, the Stars found themselves in a familiar place. They were down two goals early in the third period and were desperately searching for any sort of reprieve. Edmonton had dominated the ice all night, and it certainly didn’t look like they were going to let up anytime soon.
But sports, and especially hockey, can be funny sometimes. Just as they did in Game 7 against the Colorado Avalanche just a couple of weeks ago, the Stars rallied back from the 3-1 deficit, scoring three power-play goals in rapid succession in the third period to take a lead they’d never relinquish.
Miro Heiskanen from the left point with 19:28 left. 3-2.
Mikael Granlund from the right circle with 16:11 left. 3-3.
Matt Duchene from just to the left of the crease with 14:02 left. 4-3.
Boom, bang, pow.
No team left in the Stanley Cup Playoffs — and perhaps no team in the league itself — has the ability to turn it on like the Stars do. In a moment's notice, Edmonton went from sitting pretty, staring a 1-0 series lead in the face, to being caught with their pants at their ankles (metaphorically, of course).
With their comeback on Wednesday, the Stars became the first team in Stanley Cup Playoffs history to earn more than one win in regulation after trailing by at least two goals in the third period. The comeback kids? Nah, more like the comeback Finns. That was terrible. Ignore that joke everybody.
Anyway, it had to feel good for the Stars’ bench after the catastrophe that was Games 4-6 in last year’s Western Conference Final against these same Oilers. If you recall, the Stars went up 2-1 in that series before the bottom fell out of the offense, particularly on special teams, where Dallas went an abysmal 0-for-14 on the power play throughout the entire series. The Oilers won all three of those games to advance to the Stanley Cup Final, sending the Stars home unhappy.
It’s very clear that the mission this time around is to avenge last year’s catastrophic collapse. While that may have become evident to everybody during that masterful third-period comeback, it should’ve been clear the moment that Stars general manager Jim Nill started pushing all his chips to the middle of the table by trading first-round picks for Granlund, Cody Ceci, and, most importantly, Mikko Rantanen.
And hey, Rantanen didn’t even factor into any of the scoring on Wednesday night, and the Stars still won by three goals. The depth on this team is absolutely nuts. (Or bananas, if you’re allergic to nuts.)
But the job is not done. Yes, a 6-3 triumph in Game 1 does a lot to lift the spirits, but six more games potentially await between these two teams as they duke it out to decide who’s going to represent the West in the Stanley Cup Final.
Tonight, the Stars will play Game 2 against the Oilers. I don’t want to be hyperbolic when I say that this game is a big one, but it is. Given how Dallas has played on the road thus far this postseason — they’re just 2-4 away from the American Airlines Center through the first two rounds — it’s pretty important to win every game at home that they possibly can. So, that means beating the Oilers tonight.
The task will no doubt be difficult. While Edmonton came back from a two-game deficit in these playoffs back in the first round against the Los Angeles Kings, they certainly don’t want to have to repeat the feat again. Even with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, it’d still be hard.
If what Pete DeBoer and the Stars’ coaching staff sent out there in Game 1 is any indication of what they’ll do in Game 2, then Dallas will continue to throw out a 12/6 lineup with Alex Petrovic being a healthy scratch. Putting Petrovic on the bench is somewhat of a tough pill to swallow, given how good he was on that third pairing with Lian Bischel, but when Miro Heiskanen is the alternative option, somebody’s got to take a seat.
It’ll be interesting to see how DeBoer throws out his forwards, though. In the second period of Game 1, with the Stars scuffling and on their heels, DeBoer reshuffled the lines a bit. When that didn’t work, he recalibrated and went back to the original lines that started the game. Obviously, that worked, as the Stars scored five goals in the third period and won the contest.
I’d expect DeBoer to roll out the same groups as always, but it’ll be interesting to see what he does if the Stars come out of the gate slowly again. Will he shuffle the lines up again, or will he stay patient and wait out the struggles, knowing that at any moment his team can put the pedal to the metal? Based on my experience watching this team, I’d venture a guess and say that DeBoer will err on the side of patience.
Side note: Of the skills that a professional sports coach (heck, just any kind of coach, honestly) needs to have, patience might be at the top of the list. It becomes even more paramount when you have a group of players who are as good as the Stars are. Sometimes it just takes a little time for them to get into the groove of the game, and once they do, it’s all over for the other team.
So, the job is simple: win tonight at home and go up 2-0 in the series. It’ll put the Oilers in a hole that will be difficult to climb out of, and, most importantly, it gets the Stars one step closer to their ultimate goal of a Stanley Cup.
You might be thinking that everything that I’ve just written is painfully obvious, and to that, I’d say that you would be correct. Of course the Stars want to win Game 2! Why wouldn’t they? But given how Dallas has performed following playoff victories, I believe it’s still important to point out that going up 2-0 is much better than being tied.
The Stars have had a tendency to just settle for that split through the first two games of a series, and I believe it’s in their best interest not to do that tonight against the Oilers. While Winnipeg and Colorado were explosive and awesome in their own right, this Edmonton team is another beast, thanks mostly to the presence of McDavid and Draisaitl. Don’t take them lightly. If any team should know that, though, it’s the Dallas Stars.