Dallas returned home Friday night, fresh off a loss against Columbus, to take on the Blues. Despite sitting at the second worst slot in the league, St. Louis put up a better fight than what might have been expected.
The first two periods were under the Stars’ control, but as the third period went on, Dallas’ grip began to loosen.
“We were kind of whacking it around a little bit in the third,” Matt Duchene said postgame. “I think we can be a little crisper, but I think we deserved the game tonight.”
In that strong opening twenty minutes, Wyatt Johnston kicked off scoring doing what he does best this season: putting up a power play goal. This is the forward’s 17th of the season and puts him just one goal behind Mike Modano’s record for most power play goals scored in a season.
Johnston took a trip to the box a five minutes later for slashing, giving the Blues an opportunity of their own. Jordan Kyrou deflected Dalibor Dvorsky’s shot past a diving Jake Oettinger to even the score.
The second period saw even more power plays. Jamie Benn committed the first offense when he got called for holding, and while the Stars kept them from scoring with a man advantage, St. Louis scored a goal seven minutes later to claim the lead.
Jason Robertson drew a slashing penalty off of fellow number 21, Jimmy Snuggerud, which sent Dallas back on the power play. Johnston slid the puck to Duchene, who shot it past Jordan Binnington to snatch the lead right back from the Blues.
The man advantages continued to rain down for Dallas as St. Louis committed penalty after penalty. But three power plays later, the score remained 2-2.
St. Louis began to dig in a little more and Dallas looked flat as the third period progressed. More turnovers and bad zone entries kept the Stars out of the net and gave the Blues some good looks, which Oettinger managed to stop.
With just over a minute remaining, Roope Hintz stepped up to take a face off. He won it, and managed to wrangle it towards a net front Robertson, who elevated it and got it by Binnington.
“The play kind of broke down when ‘Roop’ kind of got stuck around a skate or whatever,” Robertson said. “Then you’re just playing hockey. And, I mean, a minute left, you gotta score a goal.”
That goal was the type of play that the Stars have been struggling to complete at the ends of games like these. Tied, tired and making mistakes, but still being able to pull out a victory. Head coach Glen Gulutzan has been emphasizing stacking these kinds of wins for weeks now, and it remains to be seen if the Stars will be able to replicate it.
Dallas will head to St. Louis on Tuesday for a rematch with the Blues at 7 p.m. CT.