Heika’s Take: Stars “Love Boat” run continues in Game 3 win over Oilers

The Stars’ playoff run this year is a lot like a season of The Love Boat.

The storylines don’t change that much from episode to episode, but the lead actors sure do.

On Monday, Roope Hintz returned from a four-game absence caused by an upper-body injury and tallied two assists, while Jason Robertson broke a 10-game goal drought with his first career playoff hat trick. It was as if Ted Knight and Tom Bosley jumped off their regular sitcoms to create a Martin-Lewis standup routine that knocked ‘em dead on the Lido Deck.

And while the kids are changing the channel about now, the point is the Stars did it again Monday night. Dallas got down 2-0 in a dreadful first period and then rallied back to take a 5-3 win in Game 3 of their best-of-seven Western Conference Final series with the Edmonton Oilers. That gives Dallas a 2-1 lead in the series and a 6-1 road record in the playoffs.

It’s a common theme that runs through this team the way Isaac the bartender gives you finger guns and a charming smile every night during the theme music.

You just come to expect it.

“We’ve got an honest group,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said about the calm reaction after a rough first period. “They know. It was just about resetting. We knew Edmonton would come out hard. It was a perfect storm. They scored early, got the crowd into it, and got some momentum. We couldn’t get any O-zone shift to take some pressure off. They did a good job. The second period was a chance for us to reset and get to our game. We needed a couple of good shifts to start the second to get the ball rolling and when we did, I thought we ran with it.”

Edmonton lost Game 2 in Dallas and knew all about the Stars’ history on the road, so it came out on fire in the first period. Connor McDavid had a great shift and fired a puck on net that deflected off of Zach Hyman and into the net for a 1-0 lead just 2:02 into the game. Then McDavid added a goal of his own seven minutes in and the lead was 2-0. Dallas was able to muster just three shots on goal in the first period and looked messy, but goalie Jake Oettinger kept them in the game – just as he did in Game 2 when the Oilers had a 16-4 advantage in first period shots on goal.

“We regrouped after the first,” said Tyler Seguin, who was moved from center to right wing on a line with Hintz and Robertson and finished with two assists. “No one was panicking, everyone was ready to respond and then we did. It just came down to races and battles.”

Hintz was a big key. The 6-3, 212-pound center is one of the fastest skaters on the team, and also one of the best two-way players in the League. That means he can help control the offense and also help shut down the opposition’s best players. That’s a challenge for any team, and it also allows players like Seguin, Robertson and Wyatt Johnston to slot into their roles more properly.

“You can see the speed that really drives our line,” Robertson said of Hintz’s contributions. “He was first on pucks and even on the forecheck. It’s a race and he won almost all of them, if not all of them. He didn’t look like he missed a beat.”

DeBoer said the team was losing battles in the first period and winning them in the second, and that’s how they came back. Hintz saved a puck at the blue line and then cycled around the offensive zone and fed Robertson for a one-timer at the 5:35 mark of the second period. Two minutes later, both Hintz and Seguin were going to the net while Robertson put a shot on goal. The puck popped loose and Robertson scored to tie things up at 2-2.

A minute after that, Jamie Benn and Logan Stankoven created chaos in front of goalie Stuart Skinner, and Johnston swiped a puck in for a 3-2 lead.

Dallas would push its shots on goal advantage to 14-0 in the second period before the Oilers finally put a puck on Oettinger, and that really changed momentum. Because of the return of Hintz, lines were juggled once again, and everyone seemed to adjust naturally. Sure, it took a period, but once it was rolling, there wasn’t much hope of stopping it.

“You focus on yourself. You watch your own bobber and you know what your role is on the team and what our team identity is,” Seguin said, throwing in a great fishing reference. “We’re good because we have those four lines. We roll different guys with different guys because we play the same way. It’s never a crazy hard adjustment.”

DeBoer said that’s what he is most proud of with this group. Sure, everyone wanted to heap praise on Hintz for his performance, but DeBoer said the bigger picture was more important.

“Obviously having Roope back helps, but I’ve liked Robo’s game even with Roope out of the lineup,” DeBoer said of the fact Robertson was on a 10-game goal drought but still was picking up assists. “If you consider what our team did at the tail end of the Colorado series and the early part of this series without our No. 1 center, I thought everyone was doing some heavy lifting. Maybe it didn’t show on the stat sheet, but we won games against really good teams all kinds of different ways.”

And that’s why this Love Boat reference rings so true with all the kids. It’s an ensemble cast where each player gets a chance to take the lead. Matt Duchene did it in the Colorado finale, Oettinger and Benn were key in Game 2 of this series. Evgenii Dadonov, Esa Lindell, Mason Marchment and Ryan Suter have all had nice cameos. And we still have plenty of episodes to go.

The Stars have a 2-1 lead with Game 4 on Wednesday in Edmonton. The Oilers will clearly come back with another inspired counter. The Stars believe they will be ready with their best goal-scorer on a hot streak and their No. 1 center with his legs underneath him.

When asked how the Stars continue to overcome whatever adversity presents itself, Robertson said confidence and persistence go a long way.

“Honestly, we know we’re a great hockey team and we know that if we do what needs to be done and everybody does their job and trusts the system, it’s going to be successful,” he said. “I think that’s the great thing with our team. No one steps out of it, no one tries to do too much, forcing plays or trying to cheat the game even when you’re down a couple of goals. Guys keep sticking with it and sticking with it. It’s contagious.”

But that’s an affliction the ship’s “Doc” isn’t going to worry about.

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.