Heika's Take: One point is better than none in overtime loss to Leafs

The Stars got a point in the standings Thursday. On this night, it was a pretty good outcome.
Dallas has been spectacular in overtime this season, but a 4-3 OT loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs was kinda okay. The Leafs had a 41-18 advantage in shots on goal and more than 30 scoring chances, so the fact Scott Wedgewood was able to get the game to overtime in the first place was quite an accomplishment. Dallas also had to rally from behind with two third-period goals, so that was an impressive feat, as well.

"They're always important," Stars forward Joe Pavelski said of earning the point. "The third, we hadn't played very well leading up to that, and the penalty kill was put in a tough spot at times, and they battled through. The point is big, but when you get there, you want that next one."

The Stars (40-26-4, 84 points) lost ground on Nashville, which beat Ottawa to go 41-25-4 (86 points). However, they gained a point on neutral Vegas, which is 39-29-4 (82 points), and has played two more games than Dallas.
"That's a huge point for us with where we are, so we'll take that and move on," defenseman John Klingberg said.

Wedgewood continues to perform well, as he moves to 2-0-1 since joining the team in a trade with Arizona. He held the Stars in it against some heavy fire from the gifted Maple Leafs. Auston Matthews scored twice and set the Toronto franchise record for goal scoring in a season with 56. He put 12 shots on goal, including the overtime winner, where he danced around a couple of Stars players and slipped the puck past Wedgewood.
Still, Wedgewood was very good. He's giving Jake Oettinger some time to rest, and also gaining his own balance with the Stars. Dallas has back-to-back games Saturday and Sunday at home vs. New Jersey and on the road in Chicago, and he'll play in one of those games.
"He's won two games for us and he's going to have to play this weekend," Stars coach Rick Bowness said. "We don't want to let him sit too long. He's played very, very well and deserved another start, and he got it."

Toronto took a 1-0 lead on a weird play seven minutes into the game. Marián Studenič was charging the Toronto net when he collided with the post and knocked the net clearly off its pegs. Because Toronto had the puck, officials allowed play to continue, and William Nylander was able to score from distance against a surprised Stars team.
That woke up the crowd, and Tyler Seguin tied the game two minutes later on a deflection, and the score stayed that way until late in the second period when Matthews scored on a power play one-timer to make it 2-1 Toronto.
Dallas rallied back with a nice goal from Klingberg that was set up by Pavelski. Toronto went back on top with 10 minutes remaining, but then Pavelski tied the game in the final three minutes when he tipped in a shot from Ryan Suter.
Dallas has been able to push games to overtime with third period comebacks on numerous occasions this season and is now 10-2 once games get to OT.
"The vibe in the locker room, the mentality we have [is that] we're never out of it," said Wedgewood. "Regardless of shot counts or things like that, I've just always found that we find a way to get something generated. Whether it takes 60 minutes or not, they're still looking and they're not going to give up. It's a well-fueled team and we're obviously all fighting for something as a group, and I'm excited to obviously keep going here and see what we can do."

So, while there still is much to work on, for this night, the Stars were able to hold serve.
"It seems like in the third period we finally won some faceoffs," Bowness said. "We were dominated there for two periods. They had the puck the whole time because we kept losing faceoffs. That's not a good team to do that against because they're a puck possession team. If you lose faceoffs, you're chasing them all night. In the third period, we started to win some faceoffs. We cut down on the time in our zone and we cut down the shots against."
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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.