Burnside: Five takeaways from Stars' third straight win

CHICAGO -- The Dallas Stars escaped penalty purgatory and survived a spirited push from the Blackhawks to come up with a crucial 4-3 overtime road win in the first of a home-and-home set against their division foes.
Here are some musings and meanderings from a second straight road win for the Stars, who have suddenly won three in a row and five of six.

1. Building through adversity

Coming off Tuesday's impressive 3-0 win in Las Vegas, the Stars once again set the tone, scoring first and forcing Chicago to chase the game, something that hasn't happened all that often for the Stars this season on the road.
And credit a very good Chicago team with consistently answering the bell three times, tying the game after falling behind by a goal. But the Stars didn't crumble. Even when they got into penalty trouble in the third period, when John Klingberg was assessed a double-minor for high sticking before the midpoint of the third, and then when Esa Lindell went for tripping with less than three minutes to go and the game tied 3-3.
"I think it's about finding that feeling. As of late, we've been finding that feeling of what it's like to win these games," said Tyler Seguin.
"We're getting that feeling of what it feels like to win games and big games like this. This is a four-point game for us and we've got to get ready to go home and do it again."
Head coach Ken Hitchcock insisted he's been expecting these moments to come, even though the team was 3-8-1 on the road when it began this two-game trip.
"I just think you build your game through adversity," Hitchcock said. "You've got to go through tough times. You don't build it through the good times, you build it through the tough times.
"I knew we were going to come to this part of our game two weeks ago, because we had really good play in us, but we stumbled, and then we started to learn. And we just kept adding more and more minutes to our game, and that's what we're going to have to do."

2. Big line quiet in reunion, but it doesn't really matter

One of the interesting part of Thursday's win was that it was accomplished without significant contributions from the reunited big line of Jamie Benn, Alexander Radulov and Seguin.
While the group had some glorious chances right from the opening minute of the game, they did not score as a unit.
Guess what? It didn't matter, which was the point in putting them back together.
"You can't win if you don't have more people playing better and we needed more people playing better. We got that now," Hitchcock said. "Right throughout the lineup. Now, we're getting four goals a game without the big line going offensively right now, so that's a really good sign."
Radek Faksa scored on a penalty shot after being hooked on a shorthanded breakaway. Remi Elie scored and had six shots on goal, and he and his linemates Brett Ritchie and Gemel Smith were a handful for the Blackhawks all night, And Mattias Janmark scored twice, including a pretty goal in overtime, thanks to a Seguin feed that gave the Stars the win.
When Hitchcock split the big line up a month ago, it was because the rest of the lineup seemed too dependent on them to carry them. Now, the inverse is true.
"Everyone stepped up," said Seguin, who led all players with seven shots on goal. "I thought the whole lineup."

3. In celebration of Faksa

We made special note of Faksa's goal explosion in the second period of Tuesday's win when he scored three times -- including twice in the last minute of the second -- to stake the Stars to their 3-0 victory.
So, you could have excused him for taking Thursday off -- at least offensively.
But nope, there he was bursting through the Chicago defenders while killing a penalty late in the first period and being awarded a penalty shot. Then he calmly roofed a shot over Corey Crawford's shoulder to give the Stars a 2-1 lead through the first with his ninth goal of the season.
"He's playing great hockey right now, and I think he's been doing it for a long time," said Janmark. "He's just a player that's playing the right way. He's an underrated player too with the puck, but first of all, he does all the little things, and sometimes, it's going to show on the paper (the scoresheet) and sometimes it's not. But it's good for him that it's showing up now and he's playing great hockey."

4. And while we're at it, in celebration of Janmark, too

You sometimes forget that a year ago, Janmark was in the midst of a lost season, trying to come to grips with a knee injury that would ultimately cost him the entire campaign. And through training camp, every moment, from contact in scrimmage to preseason games and into the regular season, had a feeling of a landmark for the young forward who'd been so impressive for the Stars two seasons ago.
Thursday was a reminder of what might be from Janmark as he smartly scored on a wraparound in the first period before netting the overtime winner for his sixth goal of the season.
"It's a constant struggle, I think, with all the games," he said. "Sometimes you feel great and then you go through a couple of games where you don't feel as great, so I think it's going to take some time and I think I'll probably go up and down a bit more.
"But I think, overall, I've been able to play on a good level, and I think this whole year is going to be kind of finding out where I'm at and I like where I'm at right now. But I'm sure it's going to be a tough road all the way."
Hitchcock admitted he doesn't even remember Janmark from two years ago, but he's sure impressed with what he's seeing now.
"He's just a good player," the coach said. "When you're smart, competitive player like he is, he helps you in so many veins. And he's very strong.
"For a small guy, he's really, really strong on the puck."

5. Odds and ends

Let's be honest, the Stars dodged a bullet -- or is that a few bullets? -- by taking a slew of penalties and ultimately losing the special teams battle, allowing a Chicago power-play goal early in the second period, a continuation of the fourth minor assessed the Stars in the first period, and still managed to come up with two points.
The Blackhawks enjoyed 12:33 in man-advantage time. You don't do that and win many games against Chicago, and we can almost guarantee if it happens again, the result will be markedly different. especially as noted, the third-period penalties could have easily derailed what turned out to be an important divisional win.
Speaking of which, the win moves the Stars to 2-6 against Central Division foes and certainly puts the pressure on Chicago, now also 2-6 against the Central, come Saturday.
Impressive on this night? How about Chicago rookie Alex DeBrincat, who scored his 11th goal just nine seconds after the Stars had opened the scoring, using his patented quick release to beat Ben Bishop.
And finally, kudos to Jamie Oleksiak, who was a healthy scratch the past two games, but who was solid and made several outstanding defensive plays while playing 14:41. He and defensive partner Stephen Johns had an exemplary game.
This story was not subject to approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club. You can follow Scott on Twitter at @OvertimeScottB, and listen to his Burnside Chats podcast here.