Heika’s Take: Stars dominate from start to finish in confident 6-2 win over Bruins

Glen Gulutzan has been talking about stacking good things for the Stars to help this team build its way out of a midseason slump that has become problematic.

In Tuesday’s 6-2 win over the Boston Bruins, Dallas did just about everything right, dominating the majority of statistical categories and taking control early in the game. Now, the task is to make this block the first step in a much larger Jenga Tower.

“We've had a few of these during this stretch, but we haven't got any traction,” Gulutzan said. “We stacked some good plays here in this game, but now we've got to stack games upon each other. So, it's a start.”

It was a start that was definitely needed. Dallas was in a 2-6-4 swoon and had lost three straight in regulation. And while none of the defeats were blowouts, there was a feeling that the team simply wasn’t making the right play at the right time – the way it did earlier in the year.

On Tuesday, the lads in Victory Green came out firing and earned three power plays in the first period. They cashed in twice on goals by Wyatt Johnston and Mavrik Bourque, and exited the first 20 minutes with a 15-6 advantage in shots on goal.

“It just feels good to be back in the win column,” said defenseman Esa Lindell. “I think it was more of the way we played overall today, it feels good.”

That was a huge improvement on the recent streak, when getting 25 shots in a game was an accomplishment. Then, in the second period (which has been their worst period this season), Dallas put on a 5-on-5 clinic. The Stars had a 17-5 advantage in shots on goal and got scores from Lindell and Justin Hryckowian. Both came off of faceoffs that Hrycowian won, and that was just one of the “little details” the team did well.

“He wins a lot of puck battles,” Gulutzan said of the 24-year-old rookie who played his college hockey at Northeastern and had plenty of friends watching. “He won a lot of draws, a key on the [Lindell] goal. He does a lot of things for us and he was really good tonight.”

Hryckowian finished with a goal and two assists for the first multi-point game of his young career, and was named First Star of the game to top it off. It was a nice feather for a depth player – and it came on a night when the Stars’ top scorer, Mikko Rantanen, was out with illness.

“We didn't know he wasn't going to play until a couple hours before the game,” Gulutzan said. “We changed the lines around from what we had this morning. Good for our guys, they picked it up for sure.”

Jason Robertson scored two pretty goals in the third to build the lead to 6-0 and then Dallas allowed two late goals against. But the message was clear – play like this more often and you will definitely be able to stack some wins and make your 28-13-9 record even better.

That’s key as the team plays at Columbus on Thursday, back home against St. Louis on Friday, hits the road for a three-game trip and then finishes the run with two divisional tilts at home before taking three weeks off for the Olympic Break.

“It’s important,” Gulutzan said of shaking the slump. “You always worry that the breaks have been hurting us; whenever we stop, we seem to slump up. But we have to ramp up and we do need to stack some games. It’s tough right now with the league because everyone is pushing for points, so we need to make sure we’re elevating at this time and pushing right up to the break, because we have lost some ground.”

But there is certainly time to win it back.

“We dominated the whole game, so, it's a good sign,” said goalie Jake Oettinger. “I think guys are happy with getting a great result like that. A lot of guys just played solid. I think it's more of that game style that we want to play.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.