'We did what we had to do tonight': Stars shine bright in a must-win game

The Stars caught a few breaks Friday night, and they made sure to take full advantage.
Dallas faced Tampa Bay's backup goalie for the first time in the past 18 meetings between the two teams, and it capitalized by getting five goals past Curtis McElhinney in a resounding 5-2 win at Amalie Arena.

That was crucial for the Stars, who could've been eliminated from the playoffs with a loss in regulation. Instead, they break a five-game losing streak and put pressure on fourth place Nashville to win Saturday against Carolina.
[WATCH: All highlights from Stars-Lightning on Friday]
Dallas moves to 22-18-4 for 58 points. Nashville is 29-23-2 for 60 points. If the Predators, who own the tiebreaker, get two points in their final two games against the Hurricanes, the Stars will miss the playoffs.
However, if Dallas, which plays two games against Chicago, gets three more points than the Predators, it can move ahead and secure a playoff spot. The win on Friday set up that scenario.
"It was a huge win, staying alive, giving ourselves a chance," said forward Joe Pavelski, who had two goals and two assists, and finished plus-5 on the night. "Obviously we still need help and we've got to take care of a lot of business going forward, but it's a start. And it was one we needed."

That motivation was likely the best explanation for the scoring outburst, but don't discount the fact they didn't have to see Vezina Trophy candidate Andrei Vasilevskiy. The 26-year-old has dominated the Stars in his career, beating them in six games in the Stanley Cup Final last season and going 6-1-0 against them during the 2020-21 regular season.
When Lightning head coach Jon Cooper decided to rest Vasilevskiy for a Saturday showdown with Florida, the Stars pounced. Dallas played Anton Khudobin in net on his 35th birthday, and the veteran goaltender responded with 26 saves. The cagey backstop said he knew the implications of the game.
"I was thinking about it, I will be honest," he said of the chance a loss would eliminate the Stars. "I was thinking, but at the same time, I try to put those things away from my head and try to focus on the shots and focus on the pucks."

His teammates had a similar level of focus.
Jamie Oleksiak activated from blueline and drove to the net five minutes into the game. He jammed home his own rebound and the Stars had the crucial first goal.

Pavelski added to that in the second period when he busted out of the penalty box and scored off a nice pass from Roope Hintz, who finished with a goal and two assists.

The Lightning cut that lead to 2-1 on a nice breakaway by Plano's Blake Coleman later in the second period, but Pavelski made it 3-1 just two minutes later on an assist from Hintz.

Hintz then made it 4-1 when he scored off a pretty pass from Joel Kiviranta in the final minute of the second period, a play that was just what the doctor ordered.

Pavelski was hit in the ear with a shot in the first period and required nine stitches but came storming back from the dressing room with an electricity that was contagious. It was a fantastic display of what the Stars can do when they're clicking.
"We spent more time in their zone, we put more pucks toward the net than we did last game, we were happy with that," Stars coach Rick Bowness said. "We weren't happy with our zone time the last game, so this morning we put a lot of focus on those two areas. We need to spend more time in their zone, we need to get our D involved, get more shots, and we need to put more pucks toward the net, which we did."
And while Bowness admitted sometimes you do all those things and don't score - as the Stars have done several times this season - on this night, they did.

Kiviranta added the fifth goal in the third period and the Stars finished off on a very happy note. They had a 31-28 edge in shots on goal, a 54-49 advantage in shot attempts and they won 63 percent of the faceoffs against a Lightning team that had been on fire. It was much closer to the kind of game the Stars played during an 8-1-2 run that preceded the recent 0-3-2 slump.

"There was a certain intensity about wanting to go forecheck, wanting to go win puck battles, and just get to the net," Pavelski said. "Those little things at the end of the night, they add up. It makes it tough on the other team and wears the other team down. It was intensity on some of the hard details."
Now, they must replicate that performance. Yes, they could technically be eliminated from the playoffs Saturday night when they're watching the Predators and Hurricanes from their hotel rooms. But if the door is left ajar, the Stars want to be able to take advantage.
"We didn't want to put ourselves in this position where we have to rely on someone else to help us, but we are, so you deal with where you are," Bowness said. "We had to win tonight, clearly. We lose tonight and the playoffs are over. We did what we had to do tonight and now we're going to need a little help. But we feel good about our game going into Sunday."
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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, and listen to his podcast.