Heika’s Take: Stars continue to conquer adversity, best Blackhawks in OT

Patience has been a friend to the Stars this season.

Sometimes, maybe too much so.

Dallas has found a way to keep calm in the eye of repeated storms, and that was the case again on Friday in a 5-4 overtime victory against the Chicago Blackhawks. But just as the quiet heartbeat has helped navigate the rough waters, it has also caused some of the problems.

Dallas got down 2-0 and crawled back to forge a 4-2 lead two minutes into the third period. It then was outshot 14-4 in the third and allowed Chicago to tie things up and force overtime. After that, the Stars were incredibly patient in navigating the 3-on-3 session, winning on a beautiful play by Miro Heiskanen, Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz with 7.9 seconds remaining.

It was, at least for this season, a true dose of Dallas Stars hockey.

“It was just one of those nights,” said Stars coach Pete DeBoer. “We showed some good resiliency and some composure. You don’t like to be in that hole, but we dug ourselves out.”

The game was odd right from the start. Dallas played very good hockey and carried over a lot of good things from their game in St. Louis on Wednesday. Still, a couple of smart plays by the Blackhawks and they had a 2-0 lead 11 minutes into the game. The Stars dug in, stayed patient (there’s that word again), and started to create chances. The top line of Hintz with Robertson and Joe Pavelski was in vintage form, and had a hand in the first three Dallas goals, and the trio of Wyatt Johnston with Jamie Benn and Evgenii Dadonov chipped in some great scoring chances and a huge goal in third period.

Johnston hasn’t scored a goal in his past 15 games – a frustrating situation after he had nine in his first 19. The second-year center said he has been battling hard to stay focused during the slump, but it hasn’t been easy.

“It’s just working for your chances,” Johnston said. “You can think you’re unlucky, but at the end of the day you’ve got to be getting those chances and just do it.”

Johnston did that on the fourth goal. He came up with a huge shot, and the rebound went straight to Benn, who was able to easily score his sixth goal of the season. Ironically, it was the same kind of play that led to Hintz getting his fourth career hat trick. Each of his three goals were sort of slam dunks that were the result of great passing from himself and his linemates.

“I got three tap-ins . . . it was some nice passes from the ‘lineys,’” Hintz said. “You’ve got to work to get there, but I give the credit to them.”

The entire line looked like they did last season when they were among the top scoring lines in the league. The top line also was a combined plus-110 last season, which was a source of pride. Before Friday’s game, they were even on the campaign.

“I think our whole line was kind of vintage out there, taking the game over, creating a lot of chances, and I think most importantly we weren’t really giving up offense against, so I think that was a step in the right direction,” Robertson said.

The trio was plus-7 on the night, and that was a huge part of the win.

Dallas moves to 46 points and stays within a point of the lead in the Central Division. Chicago has been struggling, and falls to 11-22-2. The Blackhawks will be back at American Airlines Center on New Year’s Eve, so this game will have some carry-over.

“You can’t be surprised. They’ve beat Colorado and beat Winnipeg. It’s a tough league and it’s a battle every night and this is two important points,” said DeBoer.

Dallas moves to 7-4 in games decided past regulation, which is a nice boost to the standings as well.

“I think we’re more comfortable in overtime than we were last year,” DeBoer said. “You’ve got to learn to win in all kinds of different ways. It wasn’t a perfect game, but we found a way.”

The Stars are truly doing that. The top line fought back. Johnston’s line fought back. Nils Lundkvist fought back. The 23-year-old defenseman was a healthy scratch in the past four games, but he returned to the ice, logged 14:05 and picked up a key assist. Scott Wedgewood had a few rough moments, but he also had a couple of huge saves in key moments and pushed his record to 10-2-2, including 5-1-1 since Jake Oettinger was sidelined with an injury.

“We’ve had the luxury of some of those guys working through some tough periods and we’re still winning games,” DeBoer said. “That’s what good teams do.”

And the Stars are a good team.

They are not near perfect, but they are really, really good at battling through whatever blemishes they might have.

“We don’t want to get down two goals in the first 10 minutes again, but it was a good response,” said Robertson. “You’ve got to just keep pushing through.”

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.