Jamie Benn made a spectacular play to bat a puck out of the air to the stick of Kero for a slam-dunk goal just 2:55 into the game. Dickinson then made a great read to find Robertson open in the slot for a 2-0 lead at the 5:07 mark of the first period. Dickinson then fed Robertson again in the slot, and the rookie slipped the puck to Pavelski for a sweet redirect and a 3-0 lead 14:17 into the first period.
Detroit would close the gap to 4-2, but Blake Comeau scored an empty-netter for the final 5-2 tally. It was the kind of performance where everyone contributed.
"We play with a lot more confidence, it looks like," said Dickinson of the difference between now and earlier. "Even if we have a couple of bad shifts, a couple of bad plays, or the puck goes in our net, it seems like we respond pretty well, and we keep trying to push. There were times earlier where we would get down on ourselves or start gripping the sticks a little bit too much, but it just seems like right now we are just playing a little bit more free and more confident."
It was a magnificent performance. Benn had a shot go off iron, so did Andrew Cogliano. Dallas really could have scored more, but just getting this kind of output from a team that has struggled to score goals this season was therapeutic.
"We capitalized on the chances that we got," Bowness said. "We wanted to establish the forecheck. The strength of our team is when we're going north and we're going hard and we're forechecking aggressively, and we were able to capitalize on the chances that we created. The puck went in when we needed it to go in. We wanted to go after them hard early and we were able to do that."