Heika’s Take: Stars get back to identity, roll past Capitals to end skid

What a difference a day makes.

The Stars on Tuesday played one of their worst games of the season, magnified by the fact a loss in Carolina dropped their winless streak to six consecutive games.

On Wednesday, they put together one of their best games of the season, beating Washington 4-1, but also reminding themselves exactly how they became one of the better teams in the NHL this season.

“We got back to our identity,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said.

After allowing 25 goals in the previous six games, Dallas was able to play a “stingy” game. The Stars had a 36-24 advantage in shots on goal, a 66-47 edge in shot attempts and doubled Washington up on scoring chances.

What’s more, the Stars scored first – a shorthanded goal by Radek Faksa three minutes in – and basically controlled the game from that point on.

“That’s one of the things we are trying to clean up,” Sam Steel said of unnecessary penalties. “Things happen, but we responded well and Faksy scored a huge goal. That gave us a lot of momentum.”

While that was a key moment, it sure felt like the Stars were not going to be let down on Wednesday. Dallas has been swerving all over the road, and a 6-3 loss in Carolina on Tuesday was a real low point. So after flying to Washington D.C., the team had a good meeting on Wednesday morning and found the reset button.

“It would be easy to panic at a time like this, but we had a good meeting this morning and put things in the right frame of mind,” Steel said. “We know what we need to do to put a game together like that.”

After scoring the first goal quickly, the Stars added another early in the second period to help secure the win and push Casey DeSmith’s record to 10-2-4. The backup to Jake Oettinger, DeSmith was called on in relief on Tuesday and allowed one goal on 18 shots. While that created a different kind of challenge, DeSmith said it actually helped to play the night before.

“We called it my pregame skate,” DeSmith said with a smile. “It was nice to get in some game action.”

And while the Stars had just a 2-0 lead, they seemed in complete control. The second goal was a beautiful play from Thomas Harley, who wheeled deep into the corner and found Steel at the net two minutes into the second period. Wyatt Johnston added a third goal 13 minutes into the third period, and then Roope Hintz chipped in an empty-netter after Alex Ovechkin scored for Washington.

The Hintz goal came on his 12th shot of the game, a Dallas record for most individual shots in a game. That was just another of the elements that added to a smiley night.

“We didn’t give up much, and as you do that, teams get frustrated and they open up a little bit,” said forward Justin Hryckowian. “We let our skill take over a little bit.”

Which is, in essence, their game plan. Gulutzan said the team is better in low-event hockey, and that typically means keeping the opposition bottled up. It’s a plan they would like to continue as they fly to California on Thursday and finish out the longest road trip of the season with games at San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim and Utah.

“We have won a lot of hockey games and we know how to play,” Gulutzan said. “We got a little away from our identity, and we’re much better when we’re stingy and we were stingy tonight.”

The Stars moved to 26-10-8, good for 60 points, the second-best total in the league. The problem is Colorado (69 points) and Minnesota (58 points) are first and third, and they currently sandwich the Stars in the Central Division. That means the pressure of keeping the wins up will be with this team the entire season.

Of course, the simple frustration of the moment brought out the best in the team, both physically and emotionally.

“Guys were stepping up,” Gulutzan said, “because guys wanted this to end.”

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.