Heika’s Take: Stars take advantage of opportunities, outdo Sharks in 5-3 win

The squishy border between order and chaos can be a very confusing place.

But the Stars managed it pretty well on Thursday.

Facing a hot and hungry San Jose Sharks team bent on revving up the game to suit its young legs, Dallas was able to survive a 5-3 contest and keep pace with the other surging teams in the Central Division.

The lads in Victory Green move to 23-7-5 and are 16-3-2 in their past 21 games. Colorado won Tuesday and has the best record in the league at 24-2-7, while Minnesota won for the sixth straight game on Thursday to move to 21-9-5.

All that said, coach Glen Gulutzan gave the majority of credit for his team’s win to good goaltending and specialty teams play – something that has helped carry Dallas this year. Jake Oettinger stopped 34 of 37 shots, while the power play went 1-for-1 and the penalty kill went 3-for-3.

“It wasn’t our best effort,” Gulutzan said. “They outplayed us for good stretches of this game. Credit to them, they keep coming, they keep coming, they’re down two and they keep coming.”

The Sharks have a great young roster and they pushed the Stars hard at times. San Jose had a 37-30 advantage in shots on goal, a 70-53 edge in shot attempts and had twice as many hits as Dallas. But the Stars showed their opportunistic ways, and that was enough to keep them in control.

Mikko Rantanen found Roope Hintz in front of the net 12 minutes into the game and Hintz scored his 10th of the season for a 1-0 lead. Wyatt Johnston wheeled and fired in his 18th six minutes later to make it 2-0.

San Jose had a goal disallowed on a high stick call, and then cut the deficit to 2-1 in the second period. Johnston made it 3-1 on a beautiful power play pass from Rantanen, and it seemed the Stars were in control.

But San Jose kept pushing. The Sharks made it 3-2, and then goalie Alex Nedeljkovic made a horrible mistake in the final minute of the second period. With Dallas putting some pressure on, Nedeljkovic sent a pass up the middle, and Stars forward Justin Hryckowian sent it right past the goaltender and into the net for a 4-2 cushion.

That would prove huge, as it turned into the game-winner and gave the Stars the padding they needed to clean their game up in the third. San Jose cut the deficit to 4-3 five minutes into the final period. Oettinger was outstanding, the Stars’ penalty kill was big, and Jamie Benn added an empty-net goal for the final difference.

In some ways, that was a strong response.

“We know they have had some good comebacks lately, so it was important to realize that and keep trying to make them defend,” Johnston said.

While Hintz added that is the philosophy they will need against the Ducks Friday in Anaheim: “Like we played in the end, try to play it simple and don’t feed their rush game. Just try to keep it simple and grind them down.”

The results are key, and they keep helping the Stars build a cushion of confidence. But Gulutzan said the team has to also acknowledge when extra work is needed.

“We’ve got another one like that coming tomorrow, so we do have to learn a few things from this one and regroup a little bit,” the coach said. “Because this could have gone the other way without Otter.”

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.