Heika’s Take: Stars keep hot streak rolling, conquer Sabres in 3-2 win

There are certain wins that stick out in a season like Sunday’s 7-4 win over the Colorado Avalanche.

And there are certain wins that fade into the background of the 82-game campaign like Tuesday’s 3-2 win over Buffalo.

But, at closer inspection, some of these “lesser” wins might be a lot bigger than they seem on the surface. In a lot of ways, they weave the fabric of your campaign, and they give your team the base on which to embroider some more significant embellishments.

Dallas on Tuesday returned from some tough travel to start a four-game homestand that will close out the regular season, so there was a natural tendency to relax. They allowed the first goal for the 40th time this season, and they also had a goal disallowed in a game that started kind of wobbly.

But they bounced back, got three spectacular goals from three of their best players, and eventually battled to a huge victory.

Now, they move to 50-20-9 (109 points) and continue to make this a historic season. Dallas has won 50 games for just the fifth time in franchise history. It has now posted 25 “comeback” wins, the most ever for the franchise. And Jake Oettinger set a personal record with his eighth straight win in net.

Not a bad night for just an okay performance.

“It’s tough when you come home. No excuses, but tough travel the last couple of days,” said forward Mason Marchment of the fact the team had to stay in Chicago after a weather delay on Saturday, fly into Denver the day of the game, and then fly home after a later start. “But I thought as the game went on, we really started to play our game. When we do, it’s hard to play against us.”

Dallas finished with a 25-21 advantage in shots on goal, a 53-50 edge in shot attempts, a 40-33 mark in faceoffs and a 30-8 advantage in blocked shots. It wasn’t the typical high-flying performance where the Stars just race up and down the ice, but it was methodical.

Buffalo scored four minutes into the game, and Dallas bounced back two minutes later with a beautiful re-direction by Jason Robertson. It was Jason Robertson bobblehead night after all, so the goal felt right.

“I think that’s only fitting,” Robertson said with a smile. “It’s pretty funny how that works out.”

Mason Marchment appeared to give Dallas the lead a minute later, but his goal was waived off because it was played with a high stick. Then, Buffalo made it 2-1 on a shot that slipped through the pads of Oettinger. That seemed sort of fitting for the kind of play the team was experiencing in the first period.

However, the group of Jamie Benn, Wyatt Johnston, Logan Stankoven, Thomas Harley and Chris Tanev put together a relentless shift early in the second period, and Johnston scored his team-leading 32nd goal of the season.

Four minutes later, Joe Pavelski made one of his patented redirects off a perfect pass from Tanev, and that ended up being the game-winner. All three of the Stars’ tallies could be seen as highlight-reel type scores, and that’s something the second leading offensive team in the league has been able to do a lot of this season.

“There’s a saying that it’s a race to three goals, and with our group, we can get to three goals pretty quickly,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “We score a lot easier than teams we’ve had here in the past, so it’s a great luxury to have that.”

The team also has been much better defensively in this 10-1-0 run. Oettinger is 8-0-0 with a 1.63 GAA and .939 save percentage in that span.

“The crowd was great. It feels nice to be back,” Pavelski said. “As the game went on, we got better. It felt like we were getting better, making better decisions so it was a big win.”

The Stars now are just one point away from the Rangers for first place overall in the league, but they also still need to do what they can to win the Central Division and possibly get the top seed in the Western Conference. That makes Thursday’s game against Winnipeg another big one.

“You’ve just got to take it step by step,” Robertson said. “Obviously, division, conference . . . Every game is big going down to the wire. You want to be playing well going into the playoffs, and we’ve got a big test Thursday.”

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 Twitter @MikeHeika.