Burnside: Five takeaways from Stars' much-needed win over Rangers

NEW YORK -- The Dallas Stars began an important four-game road trip against Eastern Conference opponents Monday night with a skid-snapping 2-1 shootout victory over the New York Rangers.
Here are some ponderings and pontifications on a win that was badly needed and richly deserved.

1. Actually, deserved has nothing to do with it

The first rule of NHL hockey is that sometimes, you don't get what you deserve at all. But sometimes you do.
Last week, the Stars lost three games against top Western Conference opponents and really they deserved what they got for a variety of misdeeds and mistakes that crept into their game. On this night, the Stars were, perhaps, even more deserving of a win, given their dominant performance against a very good Ranger team that had been especially impenetrable at home, having won 10 of their last 11 games at Madison Square Garden.
The Stars produced their most complete game of the season, even if the results did not reflect it in terms of offensive production. They came out of the gate like they were shot from a cannon and didn't really let up for the next 65 minutes.
"I think everyone in here knows that was embarrassing for two periods," Ranger forward Mats Zuccarello said. "They smacked us around and we didn't win one battle. We didn't win a puck battle in front of the net. We weren't first on the pucks."
Dallas outshot the Rangers 45-25 and out-attempted them 90-45. And even when the Rangers tied the game late on a mildly-questionable Rick Nash deflection of a Brady Skjei point shot, the Stars kept coming.
"I think it was a dig-deep game for us," said Jason Spezza, who sealed the victory with a nice backhander in the shootout.
"It's no secret we got challenged after that week we had. And coming into a tough building it's a team that's been playing really well. That's hopefully something we can build off of."

2. Mental toughness on display

One of the hallmarks of this Dallas team through the first third of the season, especially on the road, has been their inability to handle moments of adversity. Sometimes, that adversity comes in the form of a lack of discipline (like in last week's loss in St. Louis when they took seven minor penalties), or the absence of a timely save or frustration when things don't go their way offensively.
And there were certainly times on Monday night when you wondered if things might go sideways for the Stars, especially given the baggage they brought along with them on this four-game trip, thanks to last week's disappointing turn. Like when they failed to capitalize on 50 seconds of 5-on-3 time in a scoreless second period. They got a couple of chances, but again, the power play continued to sputter.
But as soon as the penalties were up, the Stars kept up the pressure, and soon after, took the lead. The same sequence followed New York's tying goal.
"I thought the mental toughness was after the goal," said head coach Ken Hitchcock, who challenged the goal, claiming netminder Kari Lehtonen was interfered with by Nash. That challenge was overturned.
"I don't know why that goal was allowed, but I thought our next shift was outstanding, and that, to me, is the mental toughness that we're starting to show. We hemmed the Rangers in for 35 seconds in their own zone and that's a good sign."
Spezza credited captain Jamie Benn, who was despondent with his own play after Saturday's 5-3 loss to Vegas, with keeping the group pointed in the right direction.
"We felt like we deserved to win the game, and sometimes, breaks are going to happen, and we got one against us, but Benny did a good job of keeping us calm, keeping us together and we got rewarded with the win," Spezza said.
Benn collected an assist on the first Dallas goal and turned in one of his most impressive performances of the season, registering six shots on goal.

3. Lehtonen's resurgence

It's been an unusual season for netminder Kari Lehtonen, who has been forced to accept a lesser role with the acquisition and signing of Ben Bishop to a six-year deal in the offseason. But credit the veteran netminder for providing stellar relief throughout the season when called upon.
It was an interesting choice to go to Lehtonen to start this road trip ahead of Bishop, but one that obviously paid off as he stopped 24 of 25 shots and was especially sharp in overtime when he stopped all six Ranger shots he faced.
He then stopped 2 of 3 shootout chances to earn the victory on a night when he tied Calgary Flames legend Miikka Kiprusoff for the most games played in the NHL by a Finnish goaltender.
"I think it's big. We dominated the whole (game) -- well, maybe 50 minutes," Lehtonen said. "Their goalie was playing lights out; kept it 1-0. But we grinded and I think we deserved two points."
He admitted that, sometimes, when the action is sporadic -- the Rangers had just 10 shots through two periods, five in each -- it's a little more challenging, especially when your team isn't filling the other net.
"It's a little bit tougher than having a three-or four-goal cushion," he said. "Then, it's nicer to sit there without no action, but sometimes, the games are like this. (I'm) just proud and happy how our players showed up, and how hard they played tonight and really took it to them."
Would it be a surprise if Lehtonen gets his chance at consecutive starts on Wednesday when the Stars take on the high-scoring Islanders? Not at all.
"We'll talk about it (Tuesday). But right now, quite frankly, he's giving us a chance to win every time he plays," Hitchcock said. "He's been outstanding and he's given us that opportunity. That's why we got two good goalies.
"We'll talk about it (Tuesday). But certainly, every time he plays right now, he's giving us a real chance to win games."

4. Free Honka

There's been ongoing debate regarding just what to do with rookie defenseman Julius Honka, who had played in just nine games heading into Monday's contest.
During his infrequent forays into the lineup, his play had been up and down -- sometimes looking like he was not quite ready for NHL competition, and sometimes showing flashes of his top-end skating and puck-moving abilities. Overall, however, it's been a difficult run for the 14th-overall pick in 2014, who had managed to record not a single point either in the NHL or in the American Hockey League through his first 17 games combined.
But on this night, Honka delivered a crucial goal for the Stars not long after they had blown the 5-on-3 man advantage. He took a nifty pass from Esa Lindell and blasted one past the seemingly impenetrable Ondrej Pavelec.
Though Honka played just 12:21, he made a number of good defensive plays, too, including breaking up an odd-man rush in overtime.
"It feels good, though, (to) get that goal and obviously help. It was good for the team, too, but it helped me a lot," Honka said.
"I feel really good, especially this game -- first time this year. I just want to keep going. Excited."
Hard to imagine that Honka will come out of the lineup Wednesday, given the boost of confidence his play Monday gave him.
"I think everybody had a good feeling like about first, second and third period. If we play like that, we can beat any team in this league, I think," he said. "We've just got to keep going and keep up the good work."

5. Odds and ends

This might have been John Klingberg's best-overall game of the season as the smooth-skating defender played a whopping 29:25. Solid performance on a night when the Stars needed it.
Also, what could have been a blooper reel of Alexander Radulov falling on the shootout turned out to be a pretty nice lesson in perseverance. Radulov got back to his skates and then beat Ondrej Pavelec.
And finally, a pretty funny joke by Hitchcock during his postgame availability, although few seemed to get it. (We got it, and smirked right away, but we digress.)
"I thought our penalty killing was outstanding today," he quipped.
Ha. Ha. Get it? The Stars, not the most disciplined of teams of late, took zeropenalties.
Now did they deserve a couple? Debatable. But the bottom line is that with their power play stymied, they did not lose the special teams battle -- something that plagued them during last week's three-game slide.
"That's kind of what we needed. We didn't lose the special-teams game for the first time in a little while," Hitchcock said. "If we can continue to keep our 5-on-5 play, and start to clean up our power play and penalty killing a little bit, we're going to be in good shape."
Well, that shouldn't be too hard if they keep not taking any penalties.
Ha. That was a good one.
This story was not subject to approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club. You can follow Scott on Twitter at @OvertimeScottB, and listen to his Burnside Chats podcast here.