Stars heating up at the right time with matchup against Wild up next

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Stars started practice Wednesday with a fun game. They all grabbed opposite handed sticks and tried shooting and puck.
The team is heavily left-handed, so those players had to rely on John Klingberg, Tyler Seguin, Joe Pavelski or Luke Glendening to provide the right-handed sticks. Esa Lindell even tried a goalie paddle.

It was just a way to shake things up and keep things loose.
"It's just a little fun to warm up a different way," Stars head coach Rick Bowness said. "Sometimes, you have to have fun. We're playing a game. You've got to have fun."

The Stars have enjoyed their past two performances - both 5-2 wins. Dallas entered the two games 29th in scoring at 2.17 goals per game, so these two outings tie for the most goal output on the season. That's significant for a squad that's been searching for answers because it does allow them to think they're on the right track.
"We just want to get this thing rolling," said winger Jason Robertson, who had two goals and an assist Tuesday against Detroit and had an assist in a 5-2 win over Philadelphia Saturday. "We showed against Philadelphia that we could kind of take the game over. Alternatively, we showed [Tuesday] that we could get a lead. Even though they push back, we can hold onto it and continue to get the win. Two different types of wins, and it's good to learn how to do both."
The Stars on Saturday waded into the game and needed goalie Anton Khudobin to make 19 saves in the first period. They then got their legs and took over the game. On Tuesday, Dallas was the aggressor, dominated possession and scoring opportunities, but then needed Jake Oettinger to hold on in the third period.
That's actually a good thing, because the team knows it needs to make some improvements, and there's no better time to work on things than when you feel good about your game.
"We'll take it," Bowness said. "We had a great first period. Hard to believe we were only up by one, but that's hockey. Then they got their game going and we made it a little too easy for them to come at us, so we had to tighten a couple of things up. At this point we've battled back to get to .500 and we've got to keep getting better where we can play better than we did [Tuesday] and we're going to have to going into Minnesota on Thursday."

The Wild are a much greater challenge. Dallas was sitting at home and waiting for the Flyers and Red Wings, who each played the night before and flew in. Minnesota is off to a great start at 10-5-0, is waiting at home, and is stewing over a 4-1 loss to the Sharks. They should be pretty fired up.
"We're going to find out where we are, that's what we're going to find out," Bowness said. "We're going into Minny, divisional game, we've only got one out of four points in our division, so we've got to start getting points out of our division."
The Stars currently sit 6-6-2 and are fifth in the Central Division. Their .500 points percentage puts them 11th out of 16 teams in the Western Conference.
The good news is that a lot of things seem to be moving into place. Since Robertson has returned from an injury, the top line with he, Joe Pavelski and Roope Hintz has taken off with 21 points (nine goals, 12 assists) in eight games. Meanwhile, the line of Jamie Benn centering Michael Raffl and Denis Gurianov also is finding some chemistry.
Raffl is among the team leaders in generating scoring chances.
"He's not going to score 40, but he's generating offense. That's what we want," Bowness said. "It's like Roope generating all of those chances. Eventually, they'll go in."
"The good news is he's generating and that line looks really good with Raffl, Jamie and Denis," Bowness added. "This is the best Denis has played. He's hanging onto pucks, he's driving wide, he's using all the tools we want him to use. That's a good line."
On the back end, Ryan Suter and John Klingberg are getting better together and Miro Heiskanen is a candidate for the Norris Trophy with his team-leading 13 points.
In net, the Stars are attacking with depth. Braden Holtby is out with a lower body injury, so Khudobin got the win against Philadelphia. Khudobin was sidelined by a non-Covid illness on Tuesday, so Oettinger grabbed the two points.
Either Oettinger or Khudobin will play against the Wild, and the Stars are confident in each.
Now, that doesn't guarantee anything, and the team has some work to do, but it's nice to look at things a different way every now and then. Sometimes it's by using a different stick, and sometimes it's by gaining confidence from good play.
Catch the Stars on their upcoming three-game homestand as they take on the St. Louis Blues this Saturday at 7 p.m. Get your tickets now!
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.