Heika’s Take: Stars break early season slump with offensive outburst, shut out Sharks

The Stars played much better hockey on Monday night.

They also scored five goals.

The two seem to be related.

After two subpar outings to start the season 0-2-0, Dallas snapped out of its funk in a big way, dominating play against the San Jose Sharks and taking a 5-0 win at American Airlines Center.

“It was really a simple recipe, and nice to see they were rewarded for it,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said.

Gulutzan said in the morning that the team needed to get more pucks and more bodies to the net, and that’s exactly what the Stars did. Miro Heiskanen scored first on a backhand flip at the net late in the first period that bounced in off a Sharks defenseman. Then, Joel Kiviranta was able to get a goal off a mad scramble, and Jamie Benn followed with a bang-bang play at the net for a 3-0 lead just 27 minutes into the game.

“I say to our guys all the time: ‘It’s the best league in the world, but it’s really the simplest league in the world,’” Gulutzan said. “We’re playing a young team and a young team that’s on the rise. One way to slow them down is to grind and play in their zone and force them to defend. That slows them down and I thought our guys did a good job of that today.”

San Jose made Macklin Celebrini a late scratch because of a lower body injury, and that made a difference. In the end, it was one of the most dominating performances since Gulutzan became head coach last season. Dallas finished with a 26-13 advantage in shots on goal and a whopping 66-24 edge in shots attempts. After struggling with inconsistency in the first two games, Dallas stepped on the gas and never let up.

“I think the start was a lot better. Right when the puck dropped we were ready to go, ready to battle,” said Heiskanen, who continues his fast start to the season. “I felt like we won a lot of battles and played with the puck a lot more, a lot more offensive zone time. I think that was the difference tonight.”

Jason Robertson made a nice, patient shot from the slot late in the second period, and the Stars were well on their way to erasing a bunch of personal slumps. Mikko Rantanen then made a slick juggling play in the third period for his first goal of the season and the final score of the night by the Stars.

“It’s nice,” said goalie Jake Oettinger. “Obviously, we were off and a little stressed out, but just a great team win. We felt like we had a lot more traffic and chaos at the net. Guys were not turning down shots and we talked about that a lot. A couple of those goals may have looked lucky, but it’s because you’re doing the right thing.”

Oettinger earned the 17th shutout of his career. And while the 13 saves were small by today’s standards, Stars goalie Ed Belfour had five shutouts of 13 saves or less when he played for Dallas.

“The shots that he got were dangerous, especially in the second,” Gulutzan said of Oettinger. “It’s hard for a goalie when you get three shots in the first, but some of them are dangerous. I thought he looked steady on a couple of the ones he got.”

It was a nice connection between goalie and team, as Oettinger helped feed the energy that was moving the puck to the other end of the ice.

“I felt like we just got to our game and we were playing smart,” Oettinger said. “Guys were reloading everywhere and [San Jose is] obviously super skilled, fast, talented, so we felt like if we just played hard and smart, we would get chances and we did that.”

Now, they just have to do it again…and again…and again.

“Everyone in the room knew what we needed to do,” Robertson said. “Guys kept reloading and getting it back and getting it back. It was a good game, our passes from top to bottom were more crispy. We responded the right way and we want to continue that this week.”

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.