Heika’s Take: Stars find a way again, down Wild to keep perfect start to season rolling

In their return to the cozy confines of American Airlines Center on Tuesday night, the Stars relied on a lot of comfortable memories.

Glen Gulutzan returned as head coach for his first regular-season game behind the Stars bench since April 2013.

Longtime Star Joe Pavelski dropped the puck for the ceremonial faceoff.

And Dallas walked away with points against Minnesota for the 15th consecutive time (10-0-5).

It was a wonderful celebration of Dallas hockey in front of the home crowd, and it came against one of the team’s top rivals.

“It’s super exciting,” said forward Wyatt Johnston, who was chosen to take the opening faceoff with his old landlord Pavelski. “It makes you appreciate the situation we’re in. You can really appreciate the love and support.”

And starting the season 3-0-0 is also a good thing for all involved in Texas Hockey. By taking a 5-2 victory and holding on to a narrow lead through another frantic third period, the Stars have put themselves in a very good place.

“It was a fun experience,” said Gulutzan, who returned to coach in Dallas after a 12-year hiatus that took him through Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. “It was a nice welcome.”

There are good things going on in the Stars’ world, but there also is a lot of static mixed in with that. Last week in Winnipeg, the Stars built a 5-1 third period lead but had to hold on for a 5-4 win. Against Colorado, they were heavily outshot but won a 5-4 game in a shootout, thanks largely to a stellar showing by Jake Oettinger. And on Tuesday, the Stars had a 3-0 lead and looked in control when they took a few too many penalties and allowed the Wild’s red-hot power play to score twice and cut the lead to 3-2.

“We’ve got to find ways when you have a three-goal lead to make it stick,” said Oettinger, who finished with 39 saves and pushed himself to 3-0-0 in the early season. “I was proud of the way the guys closed it out at the end.”

Minnesota defenseman Jake Middleton knocked Matt Duchene out of the game with a hard hit to the head, and Stars defenseman Alexander Petrovic was called for instigating and a game misconduct when he went after Middleton to defend Duchene. The Wild scored on the ensuing power play and Duchene didn’t return to the game. That had the Stars spinning for a little bit.

Gulutzan said Duchene will be evaluated on Wednesday, and added that he “didn’t like the hit.”

“I thought it was high,” the coach said. “My history is they usually run on the side of more aggressive on their call, but they didn’t. They saw it differently.”

Gulutzan said he did like the response from Petrovic, but it opened the door for a Minnesota power play that is now 10-for-21 on the season. However, the Stars slowed things down and then got empty-net goals from Radek Faksa and Roope Hintz to put the game away.

“The biggest thing is just keep playing our game,” Johnston said. “You’ve got to win all sorts of different ways in this league and at the end of the day, two points is two points.”

Hintz finished with a goal and two assists, while Johnston and Lindell each had a goal and an assist.

“It’s a good start, but there are things that we’ve got to keep learning,” Hintz said. “If we clean up those, I think we’re good.”

Gulutzan said he feels the potential of the team is high. Asked if he felt the fact they are learning a new system is creating issues, the new coach gave an interesting answer.

“Some of the system changes aren’t causing some of the problems,” he said. “Simple problems like puck play, that was a problem I thought today. Being sure-handed at the lines was a bit of a problem. Unforced errors were a bit of a problem, in my mind today. Our breakouts were a bit of a problem. For me, those were the things we can continue to clean up and practice.”

He added that the pursuit of perfection is a wonderful grind.

“As a coach, that keeps you going,” he said. “You always are looking for that perfect game. We do have work to do, but so does the league. Hopefully, we can get settled out before other teams and get on a real good run.”

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.