The risk-reward of the Dallas Stars’ high-flying system played out in a 46-second microcosm of the season Tuesday night.
While critics wonder if a team that ranks 22nd in the league in goals against is a serious contender in the playoffs, the Stars showed in a 5-2 win over Nashville that they are certainly capable of managing risk at both ends of the ice.
With the Stars and Predators tied 1-1 in the second period, Dallas displayed its scoring depth. Antoine Roussel took off on a counter-attack up the right wing.
The speedy forward blasted a shot on Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne, and the rebound came straight out to Radek Faksa driving the net.
Faksa tapped it in for his third goal of the season, and the Stars had a big moment in the game at the 11:03 mark.
But on the next shift, Stars defenseman Alex Goligoski gave the puck to Nashville forward Mike Fisher, and Fisher unleashed a wicked shot. Kari Lehtonen tipped the shot with his glove and the puck deflected off of the crossbar just 34 seconds after the Faksa goal.
Goligoski then corralled the puck and found Jason Spezza in transition, and Spezza roofed a beautiful shot for his 30th goal of the season and the eventual game-winning goal at the 11:49 mark of the second period.
It was a perfect example of the extremes that the Stars have put their fans through this season.
“I don’t think we played our best. I don’t think we played our worst, though,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said.
“We found a way to win when we didn’t play our best. Sometimes, in 82 games, you have to do that.”
The season has sort of been like that.
The Stars lead the NHL in shorthanded goals allowed with 13 after giving up one to the Predators Wednesday.
Oh yeah, and they rank second in shorthanded goals scored with 10.
The Stars are 27th in save percentage at .902, but they have two goalies with 23 wins each _ the first time in franchise history to do that.
Lehtonen stopped 28 shots and is now 7-2-1 in his past 10 decisions. That allowed Dallas to move to 46-22-9 (101 points). That’s the first time the franchise has tallied 100 points in a season since 2006-07.
“It’s a good accomplishment, not a lot of teams hit that, we should feel good about that,” said Goligoski, who had two assists and was plus-5. “The team has worked hard all year and we still have some time to add more points.”
The battle for the top seed in the Central Division also rages on. St. Louis won and also has 101 points, but the Stars have the first tiebreaker - regulation and overtime wins. Dallas has 44 ROW to 41 for St. Louis. With five games remaining, that means the Blues are likely going to need one more standing point to finish ahead in the seeding.
The race to the end should be exciting and could possibly prove productive. After all, the Stars still need to perfect the madness that is their game.
“I think it’s pretty good,” said Spezza.
“It wasn’t the prettiest game for us, but I think we’re doing a lot of good things, and we’re getting good results because of it. We’re trending in the right direction.”
And that’s a very positive sign at the end of the season.