The Stars went into Nashville Saturday afternoon and put the Predators on the ropes in their first-round playoff series. The Stars fell behind early but took over the game starting about midway through the first period and rolled to a 5-3 win and a 3-2 series lead.
"We come into every game desperate," Stars captain Jamie Benn told NBC following the game. "[The Predators] are a good team and we can't have any let-up. We came in with a good mentality, a working mentality and got the job done."
The Stars took control of the game with a three-goal second period, all three coming from the top line of Benn, Tyler Seguin, and Alexander Radulov.
"We were working hard," said Seguin. "I thought our first period as a line was good. We had a lot of chances - we didn't cash in on them, and we didn't get too rattled by it. Obviously, the second period was good."
The Stars have the series lead and have been the better team overall through five games, but it is far from over. Closing out the Predators Monday night in Dallas will be a stiff challenge.
"We did a lot of good things," said Stars coach Jim Montgomery. "I think we keep getting better and we have to keep getting better, the next one is the hardest one because it's the potential to end someone's season, so that's a challenge in front of us now."
On Saturday, Rocco Grimaldi got the Predators on the board first, scoring from close range off the rush 6:25 into the game. The Stars answered at the 13:08 mark when Roope Hintz finished off a great shift by the second line, circling behind the net and setting up Jason Dickinson who scored from close range.
The Stars' top line had some great chances in the first, but Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne stopped back-to-back bids by Radulov and Benn shortly after the Grimaldi goal and then denied Seguin from close range with just two seconds left in the period after a turnover by P.K Subban.
But the Stars top line scored three times in the second period as the Stars built a 4-2 lead through 40 minutes. After pinning the Predators in their own zone, Benn got the puck to Seguin who sent the puck cross-ice to Radulov who scored from close range to put the Stars up 2-1 just 40 seconds into the period.
The Stars made it 3-1 at the 7:41 mark when Benn knocked Ryan Ellis off the puck behind the Nashville net and set up Radulov, who scored from the slot.
"[Benn] can put some fear in some guys' eyes out there," Seguin said. "When he's on the forecheck, you saw a couple of those goals; not many players want to go get the puck with him going in the corner. I wouldn't."
After Nashville's Ryan Johansen cut the lead to 3-2 on a close-range shot at the 9:18 mark, Dallas' top line pushed the lead to 4-2 with a goal off the rush when Benn set up a wide-open Seguin who scored from the slot at the 15:54 mark.
The Stars extended the lead to 5-2 early in the third when Dickinson capitalized on an Austin Watson turnover and scored on a blast from the slot at the 1:57 mark. The Predators answered 28 seconds later on a goal by Kyle Turris whose centering pass for Brian Boyle deflected into the net off the skate of Stars defenseman Jamie Oleksiak.
The Predators had a lot of zone time after that and one power play chance, but couldn't get another puck past Stars goaltender Ben Bishop, who made 15 of his 30 saves in the third period.
And now it's back to Dallas where the Stars can close out the series Monday night.
"It takes four to win," Benn said. "We've got one more to close it out, and it's going to be even harder than the first five games."
