Heika’s Take: Stars bounce back in big way, knock off Bruins in 5-2 win

Consider the message received.

On Wednesday afternoon, Stars coach Pete DeBoer ran an up-tempo practice with plenty of loud instruction and basically asked his players to engage a lot more in the emotion of the game.

On Thursday, they did just that.

Playing a desperate Boston team that was coming off a shutout loss to Nashville, the Stars were more desperate, controlling the puck, forcing the Bruins into five penalties, and cashing in with three power play goals. It was a nice statement in a 5-2 win at TD Garden.

“It was a good response by us,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “I don’t think any of us were happy with our game in Buffalo and that’s the kind of response you want from your group.”

Dallas was shot out of a cannon early, and even looked good when Boston grabbed a 1-0 lead off a giveaway from Matt Dumba. But that mistake seemed meaningless when Dallas tied things up later in the first on a pretty shot from Matt Duchene and looked in control as the match headed for first intermission.

“I liked our game, despite the fact we were down 1-0,” DeBoer said. “There was a quiet confidence in the group. We had no passengers tonight. It was probably our best team game of the year.”

That was clear in the second period when Dallas scored three times on the power play in the second period to take a 4-1 lead. The Stars were struggling on the man advantage through the first seven games of the season and squandered three early chances in Buffalo when the game was up for grabs. But in Boston, it was clear they were a different team.

Jason Robertson scored off a hard-working assist by Jamie Benn to make it 2-1 just 31 seconds into the second period. Then, Logan Stankoven scored in front of the net off an assist from Duchene just over four minutes later. And Mason Marchment found a wide open Seguin four minutes after that, and the statement was made.

“I think we felt it was not a ‘must win,’ but a ‘must show up’ type of game,” Duchene said. “I don’t think our last three have been that good. We wanted to get back to Dallas Stars hockey and every single guy was going.”

Dallas lost on the road in Washington last week, were bailed out by Jake Oettinger against Edmonton at home, and then looked flat in Buffalo on Tuesday. So for a team that was off to a “great start” in the standings, it didn’t feel quite that way on the ice.

“Yeah, message received, obviously,” Seguin said of Wednesday’s practice. “We knew it. We just wanted to bring back that compete.”

Seguin added that the players were on board with the hard practice.

“If they didn’t do that practice, I’m sure we would have done it as players,” he said.

The coaching staff inserted Oskar Bäck on the fourth line and started Casey DeSmith in goal. Both moves worked well, as the fourth line had plenty of jump, and DeSmith was locked in. The 33-year-old goalie was signed as free agent in the summer after a solid year in Vancouver, and he is off to a 2-1-0 start with a 1.69 GAA and .936 save percentage.

“He was awesome,” Duchene said. “You can tell the coaches have faith already in Casey because he’s played as much as he has. It’s well deserved.”

DeBoer said it was an easy decision.

“He’s made it easy for us to play him with how he has played through exhibition and through the regular season so far,” DeBoer said.

DeSmith said he was a little surprised by the assignment, but as a native of New Hampshire, he was excited to have his dad and some friends in attendance.

“I wasn’t necessarily expecting it, but I was really happy when they called on me and gave me a chance to play,” he said. “It’s a fun building to play in. It’s obviously close to where I grew up, so it adds a little extra for me.”

DeSmith said he had a good seat to see the Stars really turn things on.

“We just really took it to them and dictated the play.” DeSmith said. “We were responsible in our own zone, we did a lot of great things in all periods, but the second period was great. We stuck the puck in the net.”

That’s been a challenge for the Stars, so the performance was good in a lot of ways. Miro Heiskanen tallied his first point of the season, Stankoven got his first goal and still leads all rookie scorers with eight points in eight games. So not only is the power play breathing a little easier, so are some of the individuals.

“It was exciting to see some power play goals go in, because we’ve been working hard at it, probably gripping our sticks too much,” said Seguin. “Coaches have been good, especially [Steve Spott]. He’s been phenomenal with us. We’ve just been working through it and it’s nice to see us get results.”

And when you mix that with the overall response of playing together as a team, it was a pretty good night. Dallas is now 6-2-0, hosts Chicago on Saturday and then heads to Finland for two games against the Florida Panthers next weekend. They helped simplify all of those complications by just playing to their potential on Thursday night.

“We came to play,” DeBoer said. “I think we wanted to respond after losing in Buffalo. I thought we answered the bell.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @MikeHeika.