Heika’s Take: Stars break curse against Canucks with emphatic comeback win

As curses go, that was a tough one to break.

The Stars on Thursday played one of their best games of the season, and still needed a late goal in regulation and then several phenomenal plays in overtime to finally beat the Vancouver Canucks and goalie Thatcher Demko.

Their 4-3 overtime win broke a seven-game losing streak (0-6-1) to Vancouver and gave Demko his first career blemish against the lads in Victory Green. In the end, it was a tired but satisfied group in the Stars’ dressing room.

“It was a great hockey game,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “It was an entertaining game, it was a well-played game. I liked all kinds of parts of how we played, and I thought they played pretty well too. I think it was two good teams going at it. That’s how hockey should be played.”

The Stars knew they would need a great effort to beat Demko, who entered the game with a 7-0-0 record against Dallas with a 1.86 GAA and .939 save percentage. So when the Canucks scored just 2:51 into the game, it looked like it could be a long night for Dallas. But the Stars started to take control of the game and in a nifty transition play, Matt Duchene and Tyler Seguin continued their red-hot surge. Duchene made a slippery pass through the D, and Seguin poked in his 10th goal of the season 10 minutes into the first period, and the sold out American Airlines Center started to believe.

Dallas was dominating possession and really playing a near perfect game against the Canucks. In the end, the Stars ended with a 36-20 advantage in shots on goal and a 62-49 edge in shot attempts. The Canucks are the top scoring team in the NHL, so they cashed in when they had their scoring chances, but it was clear Dallas really was locked into a high level of play.

“Our D zone has actually tightened up the last few games,” said Seguin of a Stars team that ranks 16th in goals against average at 3.13. “We’ve been pretty happy on how we’ve been defending. They’re a good hockey team. They’re going to score goals over there.”

The Canucks did on pretty plays by Brock Boeser and Conor Garland to take a 3-2 lead with five minutes left in regulation. At that point, the curse seemed very real, and it sure looked like Demko and the Canucks were going to escape with a win once again. But a funny bit of redemption happened in the next two minutes. Thomas Harley, who made a defensive mistake on Vancouver’s go-ahead goal, snapped in a beautiful shot to tie things up.

“That third goal against, that was really bad on my part,” Harley said of a puck that got behind goalie Scott Wedgewood and was tapped in on the doorstep. “I went across to play goalie instead of just covering the pass for Wedge. I was just glad I could get it back.”

Harley has been a revelation this year. The 22-year-old spent most of last season in the AHL trying to improve his defensive game. He came up for the final six games of the regular season and all of the playoffs and became an integral part of the Stars defense. This season, he continues to acquire more and more minutes and now is tied for the lead among NHL defensemen in goal scoring with nine.

“Incredible the strides he’s taken in a really short amount of time,” Seguin said. “He’s found himself a nice home here. There’s only so much you can say about him for still being a kid and having that confidence.”

DeBoer has used Harley a great deal in key situations in recent games, including giving him big minutes in overtime.

“He’s earned it,” DeBoer said. “I think we really reward players on merit. You get opportunity here and you earn more opportunity depending on how you play. And he’s earned everything he’s got.”

The overtime was chaotic, but the Stars found a way to make the big plays. Vancouver was able to get a late two-on-none against Wedgewood, but the veteran goalie made the stop and seemed to ensure the game would go to a shootout. But Wyatt Johnston recovered the loose puck, got it to Harley, and he found Duchene streaking up ice. Duchene then buried the game-winner with less than 10 seconds remaining to push the Stars to 19-8-4 on the season. Vancouver falls to 22-9-3, so this win carries a little more weight.

“They’ve been playing really well, and I think they’re one of the top teams, so a great win for us,” said center Roope Hintz of beating a Canucks team that seemed to hold a jinx on the Stars. “It’s felt like that too, in the past, but I think we played pretty well today and we deserved to win.”

Especially doing it the way the Stars did.

“Our group’s response has been good since I’ve been here,” DeBoer said. “There’s not a lot of panic on the bench, there was no sagging when they scored to go up late in the third. It was just `get ready for the next shift.’ I think there was a confidence that we could tie it up.”

And, eventually win the darn thing and put the curse to rest.

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 Twitter @MikeHeika.