Heika’s Take: Stars dominate Jets 3-0 in first home game following tough road trip

Glen Gulutzan asked for a response from his team on Thursday morning and then pushed a few buttons to help get the process started.

In the end, the Stars coach got everything he asked for in a 3-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets at American Airlines Center.

Gulutzan went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen, shuffled his lines to get one of his top energy trios back together, and basically played everybody with everybody. It was a fantastic strategy that not only resulted in some great scoring chances, but also forced a ton of animosity from the Jets.

“You’re going to be in situations that are hard situations and can you sit down in the morning and get yourself centered and come out and play a good game?” Gulutzan said. “We did some individual video this morning and we challenged our guys a little bit – like, `enough is enough.’ It was a really good response from a character group.”

The morning motivation was spurred on by a 1-4-2 slump that included a frustrating loss to Boston on Tuesday and some tightening in the Western Conference standings. But the motivation during the game centered more on forward Jason Robertson and how his teammates wanted to support him.

Robertson had a “reverse” hit in the second period on Elias Salomonsson, and the Jets defenseman left the game and didn’t return. Winnipeg players said afterward they thought the hit was dirty, and Neal Pionk laid a low hit on Robertson in the third period and also tried to get him to fight.

Robertson declined, and Stars forward Colin Blackwell stepped in to fight for his teammate. Then, Stars captain Jamie Benn battled Jets captain Adam Lowry in a statement fight, and the two teams finished out the game.

“They’re going after one of our players and I didn’t love the hit,” Gulutzan said of the Pionk low-bridge attempt against the boards. “But I loved the response. It’s our building and guys aren’t going to come in here and push us around.”

That’s been a consistent message under Gulutzan this season, but some injury attrition and tough scheduling might have taken a little air out of those sails in recent games. That said, Gulutzan’s shuffling put back together the energy line of Mavrik Bourque with Justin Hryckowian and Oskar Bäck, and those three had fire all night. It also left Adam Erne and Arttu Hyry as two-thirds of a makeshift fourth line, and that might have been the key to the game. Hyry and Erne played with everyone from Mikko Rantanen to Benn to Robertson and combined for two goals and two assists. Hyry scored his second of his NHL career off a nice transition play by Benn and Erne, and Erne then scored a deflection goal off a shot from Lian Bichsel that was set up by Hyry.

“You get out there with guys that you haven’t been out there with a lot, some guys that are high-end guys. They’re fun to play with,” Erne said of the line chemistry. “We had a couple shifts with Mikko, and I think we scored on that shift. It is what it is. We’re happy to be out there with whoever we can be out there with.”

It was a clear message from the coaching staff that there was a need to get back to a simpler, more direct game, and also to add a little more emotion.

“For the team I think it’s really good,” Hyry said. “It’s what we talked about before the game, just be ready, be heavy, play like we played in those 15 or whatever games we won. I think we did that.”

It was a nice reset after a rough road trip and it also was a perfect table-setter for a Saturday afternoon game against the Colorado Avalanche, who lead the NHL at 49-15-10 (108 points). Dallas is 45-19-12 (102 points) and probably can’t catch the Avalanche for the first seed in the Central Division, but the Stars have won two of three meetings this season in shootout.

Bottom line, this should be another great test in getting this team ready for the playoffs.

“Like I said to you guys this morning, our game wasn’t good enough, in all areas . . . From number 1 to 96, all the way through,” Gulutzan said. “So I liked the response. You guys could all see it. It was a great response.”

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.