Heika's Take: Legendary performance from Robertson leads Stars to victory

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- When you're talking drama, Jason Robertson couldn't have drawn it up much better.
Playing in his 100th career regular-season game, Robertson not only tallied his first hat trick, but he did it with three spectacular goals - including the game winner with 30 seconds left in overtime. It was a highlight reel night that might be looked back upon as the greatest moment in his life.

Or it could be just a foreshadowing of things to come.
"He's pretty incredible, he's going to have quite a career, that guy," Stars goalie Braden Holtby said after a 4-3 overtime win against the Winnipeg Jets. "He's one of those guys, and there's very few of them. They get the puck and their heart rate just slows down. It's a pretty rare talent, the poise he has. It's fun to watch."
Robertson showed that talent throughout the night. On his first goal, he was face-to-face with Jets All-Star goalie Connor Hellebuyck and creates some stick wizardry to slip the puck between Hellebuyck and the post. The next goal was in transition with defenseman Thomas Harley, taking a nice pass and then calmly converting a backhand between the pads.
The last is the stuff of legends.
With both sides racing up and down to try to win the game in the 3-on-3 overtime, Robertson lost a puck on an attempted pass and looked exhausted. However, the Stars hung tough in the defensive zone and then pushed the puck up the right wing. Robertson merely had to outrace a Jets player to get a breakaway, and he did just that.

"I'll tell you how much he loves to score goals," Stars coach Rick Bowness said as he recounted the play. "He was exhausted at the end of that shift and then he saw he had a breakaway opportunity and his eyes lit right up and he found a second wind. He was dead tired, but he saw that opportunity and elite athletes find that second energy and that second effort."
Robertson admitted the chance to score again was a heck of a carrot dangling in from of him.
"I can't lie, I love breakaways, and I wanted a breakaway," he said. "I found whatever gear I had left."
The play was amazing. He collected the puck, sailed in on Hellebuyck and lifted in a perfect shot for his team-leading 26th goal of the season and team-leading eighth game-winning goal. In 100 games, the second-round draft pick has collected 43 goals among 97 points, something not many expected from him before last season.
"He's a natural goal scorer, he's got a great touch around the net, and he loves to score," Bowness said. "His poise with the puck and where to put it, when to put it, you can't teach those instincts that he has."
Robertson credited his teammates with strong play to get him the puck and said the penalty kill and Holtby were huge parts of Friday's win. Dallas allowed one goal on six Winnipeg power plays and Holtby stopped 39 shots to get the win.
Holtby had been nursing an injury and had played just once in the past 11 games because Jake Oettinger had been on a roll. Getting the 32-year-old back in net was essential and also a challenge.
"Braden was outstanding, especially all of those power plays they had," Bowness said. "He had to be. We spent too much time in our zone, and Braden made some huge saves."
Holtby faced 16 shots in the first period as Dallas was shorthanded three times, but he said getting that action helped him jump back to the level he needed.
"I think our PK did a really good job tonight and after you haven't played in a while, it's not bad to have some action off of the start," he said. "You get into the game and that sort of thing."
Holtby definitely did that, but the game looked in jeopardy in the third period when Winnipeg scored twice and took a 3-2 lead. However, Denis Gurianov scored from distance (through a Robertson screen) and the Stars had new life. That was huge, as Dallas moved to 31-20-3 and now are ahead of Nashville in the standings and just two points behind Minnesota. Those are their next two opponents on this road trip.
"It's a big game for us," Holtby said. "You could tell they were a desperate team, and they got some big goals and big plays. At this point in the season, it doesn't matter how you do it, you just got to keep going. Now it's about forgetting about it and moving ahead to Minnesota."
Dallas also moved seven points ahead of the Jets and went 3-0-1 in the season series. It was a testament to how good this team has been in close games this season.
"It's just a big win for our team," Robertson said. "I'm glad we got rewarded. We stuck with it, everyone did, and these two points are very important for us."
Robertson's stick-to-it attitude might be one of the last impressions of the season.
"It was up and down the ice a few times for him, but a guy like that who loves scoring is going to find an extra gear," Holtby said. "And everybody on the ice was tired too, so he found that extra."
It's sort of a symbol for his career right 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.