Heika's Take: Stars battled, grinded and clawed their way to a win

It's hard to win in the NHL.
Especially for the Stars.
Dallas has to grind, and toil, and slog. It has to pull, and scrape, and gnash.
This team has to crawl over barbed wire in its jockstraps while toting 50-pound stones on its back to get two points.
And yet here we are.

After just such an effort on Thursday, the Stars are 4-4-2. They somehow were able to get past the Calgary Flames, 4-3, in overtime, to put an incredibly valuable toonie in the points bank. In the process, they rallied back from mistakes of physical and mental variations that helped build the wall a little higher. In the process, they learned some good and bad things about themselves. In the process, they survived.
And that's not the worst thing in the world.
"It was so much on us tonight," center Tyler Seguin said when asked about taking on the high-flying Flames, who fell to 6-1-3. "We had a long meeting (Wednesday), so it was more about how we wanted to play and how we wanted to get our identity back of what our organization is like. I thought we did a good job with that tonight."

So what is that identity? Is it "aggressors" or "defenders" or "opportunists?" Is it "survivors?"
It kind of seems like a lot of things right now, and that's probably not unusual. NHL teams battle other NHL teams that are very similar in talent and ability, and that creates variables that are difficult to separate. Dallas came out on fire against a very good Calgary team that had a history of starting strong. So there was purpose and intent in taking a 10-5 edge in shots on goal, and a 1-0 lead on the scoreboard for the Stars.
They wanted to put the Flames on their heels. They wanted to give themselves confidence. They wanted to play with a lead and see what that felt like. And they did.
Denis Gurianov took a healthy scratch on Tuesday in Winnipeg, and that obviously provided a rest or some motivation, because he was flying in the first period. He broke up a potential odd-man rush and he drove the net to convert a Renoir-like set-up from Miro Heiskanen on the power play to give the Stars the all-important first goal.
Was it because of the scratch? Was it the result of several lessons finally hitting home? Was it simply a moment where players turned off their brains and let their instincts take over? Probably all three, but it was a thing of beauty, and it did give the Stars a huge boost in momentum.
Unfortunately, they gave it away in the second period where they once again found the game difficult. As they have on so many occasions this season, the Stars couldn't connect on passes out of the defensive zone. The forwards and defensemen were out of sync, the little plays that seemed so easy in the first period just became too darn hard.
And so Dallas was outshot 15-7 in the period, took two penalties, and surrendered two goals. Milan Lucic had a fluky tip that bounced over Anton Khudobin (showing that going to the net really can work). And then Matthew Tkachuk scored on a power play and that paid off for a 2-1 lead.
Things seemed to be heading in a bad direction at that exact moment, but the Stars decided that they needed to shake things up. Blake Comeau, who took the high sticking penalty that led to Tkachuk's goal with the two-man advantage, then came out of the box about a minute later. Michael Raffl found Comeau open on the left wing, and the 36-year-old winger blasted in his first goal of the season at the 19:54 mark of the second period.
It was the perfect play at the perfect moment. Comeau's high stick was an unnecessary and harsh penalty, and the Stars were lucky he didn't get a double minor. But instead of getting down on himself, Comeau came out and did something about it.
Just as Gurianov had done after the healthy scratch, Comeau found a way to make a negative into a positive. It was a chance for the Stars to enjoy the second intermission and look to the third period with some amount of confidence.
"We knew there would be a big push," Stars head coach Rick Bowness said. "Sometimes in this league you bend a little bit, just so long as you don't break, and that goal by Blake at the end of the second period was absolutely huge."

The Stars received an incredibly greasy goal from Seguin 1:34 into the third period and looked to be on their way. Heiskanen made another great play to get the puck to Alexander Radulov at the point, and Radulov put a shot on net. Seguin was camping out in front of Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom and the puck hit off Seguin's stick and upper body before deflecting in.
It was a great lesson that every goal doesn't have to be beautiful, and it was important that Seguin was the player who gave Dallas a 3-2 cushion.
Of course, closing out these one-goal leads has not been easy for the Stars, and they started chasing the game. Dallas handed out three penalties in the final eight minutes of regulation, and Calgary cashed in at 4-on-4. The Flames tied the game at the 16:03 mark, and the game eventually headed to the extra frame.
Now, the petri dish of overtime has been a whole 'nother learning environment for this team. They took a league-high 14 OT losses last season, but they have been getting better this year.
They've added a healthy Seguin and Radulov, and that gives the coaching staff other options, and the group has been working on 3-on-3 more in practices. So while Dallas was chasing overtime both Tuesday and Thursday, they found a way to get the game-winner on Thursday.
Joe Pavelski fed Jamie Benn and drove the net ahead of the Stars captain. Benn followed behind and snapped in the winner past a screened Markstrom. It was textbook hockey, but it was also a very nice sign that the team can execute an important plan at a crucial time in the game.
"You knew once he got one, things we going to roll," Seguin said of Benn's confidence. "That's a play that he makes when he's feeling it, when he's feeling comfortable again and when he's feeling that swag. The patience, pick your corner, snipe it, game-winner. He's such a good player and this is just the beginning for him this year."
That's the plan, anyway. On paper, Benn is heating up with two goals in the past two games. On paper, Seguin is finding his stride with two goals and an assist in the past two games. On paper, Heiskanen is throwing himself into the conversation for the Norris Trophy with 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in 10 games.
Even Gurianov's progress was important. He was struggling, he was losing his confidence, he took a seat, and it made a difference. He was a different player on Thursday, and the hope is he'll be closer to that player on a more regular basis going forward.
Look, the Stars are weaving threads every game here. They're taking the Heiskanens and the Benns and the Gurianovs and the Comeaus and they're hoping that by wrapping the threads tightly enough over one another, they can form a rope to pull on together.
Anton Khudobin was quietly solid with 30 saves in getting the win. He was one of the threads. Rookie defenseman Thomas Harley played a workmanlike 16:07. He was one of the threads. John Klingberg carried the puck out in overtime and got it to Pavelski - who got it to Benn. He was one of the threads.
Maybe at some point, the Stars will win their first game in regulation this season, and the battle won't have to be so torturous. But if Dallas can find a way to collect these hard points, then that's a good thing too.
It's hard to score goals, it's hard to make smart plays, it's hard to win.
But the Stars seem to understand that right now.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.