Heika’s Take: Stars outdo Kraken for second straight game, sweep four-game trip

The Stars on Monday swept a four-game road trip and won their sixth game in a row.

With a 3-1 win over Seattle, the lads in Victory Green finished the month of March at 11-2-2 (2nd best in the NHL), and did so while not playing their best hockey. That’s a pretty good sign.

“It wasn’t perfect, but I’ve been in this league a long time. You don’t go 4-0 on many road trips in this league,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said, adding that a 7-0-2 stretch also feels pretty good. “It’s a nice luxury when you haven’t lost in nine and you’re not perfectly happy with your game. That’s a good place to be.”

The wins are keeping Dallas (49-21-4, 102 points) close to first-place Winnipeg (51-19-4, 106 points) and also building a cushion on hard-charging Colorado (45-26-4, 94 points). If the playoffs started today, the Stars and Avalanche would meet in a titanic First Round showdown, and having home ice would be very important.

That said, players and coaches always seek a better performance.

“The wins matter, but we’re trying to get our game ready for the playoffs,” said Matt Duchene, who scored his 29th goal of the year. “We’d love to take that top seed, that’s obviously a goal, but we’re going to have to play great teams no matter what position we finish, and we want to make sure our game is where it needs to be. If it is, it gives us the best chance to win in the playoffs. That’s the goal right now, and I think we’re taking good steps toward that.”

The Stars have had some hiccups in recent games and have been saved by goalies Jake Oettinger and Casey DeSmith. But after getting heavily outshot in wins over Edmonton and Calgary, Dallas brought the analytics close to even in two wins in Seattle. On Monday, the Kraken had a 36-31 advantage in shots on goal and a 67-61 edge in shot attempts. Part of that was because Dallas took a 2-1 lead and tried to manage it, and part of it was because the Stars were shorthanded three times.

Both the penalty kill and DeSmith were on point, and that allowed the Stars to drag the score out and add an empty-netter for the final difference. DeSmith stopped 35 of 36 shots and moved his point streak to nine games (8-0-1) with a 1.88 GAA and a .943 save percentage. DeBoer said Monday would have normally been a start for Oettinger, but because DeSmith has been playing so well, he earned an extra start. That’s a good place to be, the 33-year-old veteran said.

“I like playing hockey and it’s nice when everybody believes in me enough to give me a couple of more games here and there,” DeSmith said. “I’ve been on a good little run here, probably the best of my career, and it’s really nice. I definitely feel I’m playing really confidently. It’s nice to play behind this team. They make it easy on me, they really take care of the front of the net, they let me see the puck. It’s been great. It was a great road trip for everybody.”

Seattle scored one minute into the game for the second straight game, and that could have created some problems. But DeSmith was solid, the team played better, and goals from Duchene and Wyatt Johnston made it 2-1 just a little over two minutes later. In a lot of ways, that was the statement the team has been making throughout this winning streak.

Sure, we’re going to face adversity, but we’re going to also have push back.

“To go on this trip and win all four games, you’ve got to give our group credit,” DeBoer said. “We had to do it all different ways. I thought our goaltenders were great the entire trip, which helped. We bent, but didn’t break.”

Roope Hintz was named the NHL’s Second Star of the Week and had 21 points (4 goals, 17 assists) in 13 games in March. Jason Robertson had 16 points (8 goals, 8 assists) in 15 games, while Johnston (12 goals, 3 assists) and Duchene (5 goals, 10 assists) had 15 points each. The Stars are scoring key goals at the right time, and also getting big saves and big penalty kills.

Esa Lindell received the cowboy hat given by the players to the star of the game, and DeSmith said the veteran defenseman deserved it.

“I love Es,” DeSmith said. “I wish he was on every team I’ve ever played on, he’s so good at what he does. For my money, the best defensive defenseman in the league.”

Dallas stopped all three Seattle power plays on Monday and leads the NHL in PK success rate. DeSmith said his teammates worked very well in figuring out what the Kraken wanted to do.

“There’s definitely a trust factor there,” he said. “That power play likes to look for the back side. They looked for it a couple of times and my guys were there. That’s just the trust factor I have in all of these defensemen.”

Dallas continues to be among the league leaders in a lot of different categories, and that’s one of the reasons they have confidence as the playoffs near. Still, they always want more.

“It was good. There are still areas to improve for sure, but I think we’re going in the right direction,” Duchene said. “I think we’re taking good steps toward that. I think we could be better, but we’re going to keep working.”

That starts with five of the next six games at home, where the team has the third best record in the NHL. When you can do that, then getting a four-game sweep on the road becomes even bigger.

“We got all of the points we wanted to get, and I think we learned some things about our group,” captain Jamie Benn said. “There are things we can improve on. Obviously, we’re not satisfied. We want to keep getting better in all parts of our game.”

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.