Heika’s Take: Stars keep their cool in shootout win over Sharks

There was a real chance for panic from the Stars Saturday night.

As Dallas was taking a deep breath after surviving a vicious February schedule, it was playing the struggling San Jose Sharks, and the local lads seemed to have everything under control with a 38-23 advantage in shots on goal.

But when the game went into overtime and San Jose got a 4-on-3 man advantage, the opportunity for a costly lost point was teed up at American Airlines Center. Instead, the Dallas penalty kill dug in, Jake Oettinger made some key saves in a shootout, and the Stars walked away with a 3-2 win to stay atop the Central Division at 37-17-9 (83 points).

“Those are important points,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “You don’t get extra points for how pretty it was. They were opportunistic and their goalie was good. When you have that combination, you have a chance to beat anyone on any night. That’s the beauty of the NHL - the parity night to night. You can’t take anybody for granted. Their goalie made some saves, and we were chancing the game tonight because of that, but we stuck with it and found a way.”

The Winnipeg Jets beat Carolina to keep pace with the Stars, but the Colorado Avalanche fell back two points with a 5-1 loss to Nashville. That’s another reason why getting the two points was huge. The Stars were able to battle through their toughest month of the season with a 6-4-3 record, and now they get rewarded by playing a schedule that includes a significant number of non-playoff teams. San Jose sits 31st in the league at 15-38-6, so getting the Sharks at home seemed to be a nice present from the scheduling gods.

Dallas seemed to take advantage as it had an 85-56 advantage in shot attempts and doubled up the Sharks on scoring chances, but goalie Magnus Chrona had other ideas. The 23-year-old with just three games of NHL experience was exceptional and frustrated the Stars for much of the night. He ended up being just as good in the shootout, as he foiled Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz, Wyatt Johnston, Logan Stankoven and Joe Pavelski before Jamie Benn finally put the game away in the seventh round. Matt Duchene also scored for Dallas.

Still, there was a lot of pressure throughout the contest. Dallas failed to capitalize on big scoring chances, and San Jose was able to push two goals past Oettinger. The first was a rebound after Dallas allowed the Sharks to bust loose on a two-on-one. The second was a fluky flip after a turnover in the second period. After a shot by Filip Zadina, the puck bounced just over the goal line for a split second and had to be reviewed.

Dallas had tied the game earlier on a nice rebound shot from Radek Faksa in the first period, and then tied it again in the third – this time on a clinical execution off a power play faceoff. Benn won the puck back to Miro Heiskanen, who quickly fed Robertson for a one-timer. Robertson banged in his 21st goal of the season and the Stars could take a breath and try to battle for the go-ahead after that.

San Jose created a few key chances and actually had a 9-7 edge on shots on goal in the third frame after Dallas outshot the Sharks 29-11 in the first two periods.

But the real pressure came in overtime. Heiskanen took an interference penalty and Dallas had to kill two full minutes of 4-on-3. The intensity was high, as Dallas would have lost the game (and a valuable point) by surrendering a goal. But Esa Lindell and Jani Hakanpää played all two minutes of the penalty kill and Oettinger finished with three saves in overtime to avert disaster and force the shootout.

“It was a huge penalty kill,” DeBoer said. “A couple of big saves from Jake when we needed them at the right time, including in the shootout. Real important points.”

Lindell, who leads the NHL in shorthanded time on ice, said he felt the team was calm during the penalty kill.

“Sometimes, it feels a little bit easier,” Lindell said of the 4-on-3 kill. “It’s more clear what they are trying to do. They have less options. But it worked out well today.”

It was a huge moment for the entire team.

“It’s kind of overlooked,” said Robertson. “These guys have to get the job done and we’re all on the bench cheering them on. It’s heroic. I hope they get a lot of recognition for that.”

Then Duchene scored in the shootout, and both teams kept taking turns on trying to win. Chrona was strong on his glove hand and foiled a few backhand attempts by the Stars, and Oettinger stayed focused and kicked out several Sharks attempts. Then Benn got the call in the seventh round and decided to go to Chrona’s stick side, powering the puck in for the lead. It was Benn’s first shootout goal since 2019 and his first attempt in the shootout since 2020-21.

“We talked to him the other day,” DeBoer said. “He hasn’t shot in a while and he wanted to get back in the mix, so we put him on the list and he delivered. It was a huge goal by our captain.”

Indeed it was.

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.