Heika’s Take: Patience, perseverance pay off as Stars down Blackhawks in overtime

The Stars had some challenges on Sunday.

They were following up their most intense game of the season (a shootout loss to Colorado on Friday), they were playing in a 5 p.m. game without a morning skate, they were incorporating two new players into the lineup, and they were still playing without injured forwards Mikko Rantanen, Roope Hintz and Radek Faksa.

So, sure, beating Chicago in overtime, 4-3, doesn’t sound like a huge deal. But, in a lot of ways, the win was a great lesson in patience and persistence for the lads in Victory Green.

“We stuck with it,” said Stars coach Glen Gulutzan. “I thought it was a good hockey game. They’ve played us hard all year and they’ve given us lots of trouble. We were much better tonight than we were in the previous two. The guys got confidence off of that and they got confidence coming off the winning streak, and we’ve been really good at staying with it in these situations.”

Dallas needed that as the Blackhawks netted two early goals on Casey DeSmith and then forced the Stars to really scratch back. Nathan Bastian popped in a nice redirection for his sixth goal of the season in the first period, and then Mavrik Bourque tied things up just a minute into the third period to help ease the stress being felt throughout a packed arena.

The depth scoring was huge for the Stars, as it has been consistently during an 11-0-1 run.

“We’ve got a really good character group,” said Gulutzan. “When the adversity is bad, you see character, and they’ve been great.”

Among the leaders Sunday were Bastian, Bourque, Justin Hryckowian (who scored the go-ahead goal in the third), Adam Erne, Colin Blackwell and Oskar Bäck. A solid effort throughout helped the Stars finish with a 32-17 advantage in shots on goal, a 64-38 edge in shot attempts, a 27-10 lead in hits, and a 29-13 advantage in the faceoff circle. Statistically speaking, the Stars dominated the game.

“The thing I notice with the group here is the amount of plays they make, but it’s a simplicity to it,” said defenseman Tyler Myers, who was acquired in a trade with Vancouver last week. “Guys aren’t trying to force the game or trying to open things up. It’s very simple but they’re making a lot of plays out there.”

Myers logged 13:05, had four shot attempts and three hits in his first game with his new team. New forward Michael Bunting, acquired from Nashville, finished with an assist in 14:43.

“I think we were playing the right way,” Bunting said of coming back from the two-goal deficit. “We had our chances and had our looks, and you have to give kudos to their goalie. He had some good saves, but we just stuck with it and kept it going.”

Dallas earned a third period power play when Erne drew a trip, and then both Bourque and Hryckowian swiped at a puck in the slot. Hryckowian got credit for his 10th goal of the season at the 9:40 mark to give the Stars a 3-2 lead. Dallas was then tasked with protecting a lead once again with the opposition goalie pulled. Colorado scored Friday and eventually won that game in the shootout. Chicago scored, as well, on a deflection off of Myers’ pads, but the Stars found a way to win in overtime.

“They're two different scenarios,” Gulutzan said of the tying goals scored by Colorado and Chicago. “One is a dot-shot, which those are hard to defend. This one, if we could have denied access a little bit to the middle, that's helpful too. But again, it caromed off us and it goes in. We’ve got to look at our draws and getting clears and getting this thing to the neutral zone rather than playing it in our own zone.”

That said, the challenges can be helpful in getting this team ready for the playoffs. Matt Duchene set up Miro Heiskanen for the winner in overtime, and that was a pretty play. The Stars moved to 39-14-10 (88 points), good for second in the NHL.

“It was a hard, hard game Friday,” Gulutzan said. “I just felt our team looked a little tired. I thought we played hard with good energy. The new guys, I thought, adapted well to the system. It was just a good overall effort.

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.