In an up and down season, Stars are heating up at the right time

Stars (27-19-2, 56 points) vs. Coyotes (12-33-4, 28 points)

The mystery of the NHL season has been laid out before Stars fans over the past month or so.
Dallas is 9-3-0 in its past 12 games, including six straight wins on the road. That means the Stars were 3-3-0 at home in that span. This, of course, is a team that was dominant at home and horrible on the road in the first half, so figure that out.
On one hand, the road schedule has been easier as five of the wins have been over opponents who will likely not make the playoffs. But the Stars' performance in a few of those games (Buffalo, Detroit) was less than stellar. Meanwhile, at home, they were killed by Washington on Sergei Zubov night, manhandled a pretty good Boston team, dominated Calgary for 54 minutes before letting the game slip away, and found wins over good teams in Nashville, Winnipeg and Colorado.
So what does it all mean?
Well, the win over Colorado is worth a second look. The Avalanche dominated Dallas to the tune of 88-39 in shot attempts and looked for all the world like a candidate to chase down a 3-1 deficit in the third period. But Jake Oettinger was fantastic, and the Stars scored an empty-net goal with 1:23 remaining to close things out. Those were things that didn't happen against Calgary.
Was it lessons learned from the previous loss?
A little better goaltending and a little better luck?
Or was it maybe that the Stars are starting to figure out just how important every point is right now?
"I think we're just aware of where we are right now in the season," said forward Tyler Seguin. "You have that at the beginning where you're excited for the year and then halfway through, you kind of get in those dog days, every team goes through that. But we're at the point right now where there's that push and we're right on the cusp. It's exciting hockey and it's an exciting opportunity for us. We feel like we're all trending in the right direction."

Stars forward Joe Pavelski said earlier that chasing down a playoff spot is pretty simple in the end.
"Getting points is important," Pavelski said. "When you have a chance to do that, even if you haven't played your best, you need to get the points. We understand how close this is and that it could come down to one or two games at the end of the year."
It's an important point. It easy to look at losses to Vegas, St. Louis and Calgary where the Stars blew leads in the third periods and lost in regulation. That's at least three points missing in the standings (from potential overtime losses) and could be as many as six. Six points would come in very handy right now.
So when you look at the steal in Colorado, maybe it's the hockey gods evening things out. Or maybe the Stars simply found a way to not lose that game. They performed a similar feat in Chicago with the 1-0 shootout victory, and now they have a chance to do something similar Sunday in Arizona.

This will be the last game for Dallas in Glendale, as the Coyotes are moving to Arizona State next season. The Stars are 5-1-0 in their last six visits, and Arizona has the worst home record in the league at 5-18-1.
Dallas returns to face two games with playoff implications this week against Winnipeg (home) and Nashville (road), so momentum would be a good thing.
Oh yeah, and as the Stars are proving in recent weeks, getting points is important.

What to watch

Thomas Harley is learning the ropes right now.
The 20-year-old defenseman taken 19th overall in 2019 is going through his longest stretch in the NHL if he plays Sunday at four straight games. He played in four games in November, but then was returned to the AHL, where he has 11 assists in 27 games this season.
Harley has yet to tally a point at the NHL level (11 career games), but he definitely seems to be earning the trust of the coaching staff. Andrej Sekera still is on IR with an upper-body injury, and Joel Hanley has been a recent healthy scratch after playing 12 games in January and February.
Harley said he feels better each time he's called up.
"They've been preaching defensive consistency and intensity since I was 18 and freshly drafted. I think that's something I've taken huge strides in the past year," Harley said. "If you look at where I was last year in the AHL vs. where I was just recently this past weekend, I think it's huge step. I'm ending plays a lot quicker. I'm boxing out in front of the net."
Stars coach Rick Bowness said the journey is challenging for every young player.
"There comes a point where he's got to stay in the lineup," Bowness said. "We're to that point where if he plays well, he's making us make that decision. 'Okay, he's ready.' So he's improved in the areas that we need him to improve in. He's got a tremendous amount of confidence in his puck skills. You saw that the other night, which we love."

Lineup update

Here is a possible lineup:
Robertson-Hintz-Pavelski
Benn-Seguin-Gurianov
Raffl-Faksa-Glendening
Kiviranta-Peterson-Radulov
Suter-Heiskanen
Lindell-Klingberg
Harley-Hakanpaa
Oettinger
Holtby

#

Numbers

11.6 percent

Arizona's power play ranks last in the NHL with a success rate of 11.6 percent. The penalty kill is 31st at 72.6 percent.

Plus-12

In 19 career games against Arizona, John Klingberg has 12 points (three goals, nine assists) and is plus-12.

64

Arizona ranks 31st in second period goals against at 64, while Dallas ranks 28th at 60.

He said it

"I think he's feeling more comfortable with his speed. He's skating better. Because he's feeling better, his intensity has picked up. He's winning more races for pucks. He's winning more battles to win pucks. He's going to the danger areas a little more." -- Bowness on the improvements of Seguin since the start of 2022. Seguin has 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) in his past 13 games.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.