Heika’s Take: Defensemen shine bright as Stars fend off Ducks in OT

If you want to stick a pin in Thursday’s Stars game, you have plenty of reasons.

One, defenseman Miro Heiskanen returned from a three-week injury absence and looked good in 25:33 of time on ice.

Two, Dallas fought through another strong goaltending performance from the opposition and powered through with 44 shots on goal.

And three, a team that struggled in overtime last season, and lost in the first minute of OT against the Islanders, found a way to come up with a big 4-3 OT win against the Anaheim Ducks at American Airlines Center.

It was another bizarre and entertaining night in a bizarre and entertaining season. Dallas outshot the Ducks, 44-21, had a massive advantage in shot attempts at 74-40 and had twice as many quality scoring chances.  Yet the Stars trailed 2-1 in the second period and 3-2 in the third before coming back and getting key tying goals that set the table for some heroics by Thomas Harley in the extra frame.

“You’ve got to win them all kinds of different ways,” said center Matt Duchene, who scored his 16th goal of the year. “We stayed with it and got the job done.”

Duchene gave the Stars the first goal of the game and a 1-0 lead, but Anaheim came back with goals from Urho Vaakanainen and Troy Terry to make it 2-1. Dallas tied it on a shot from Craig Smith that was overlooked at first but then was determined a goal on video replay. That made the score 2-2 after two periods, but then Jakob Silfverberg scored just 12 seconds into the third period and the Stars were chasing the game again.

Dallas moves to 29-13-8 (64 points) while Anaheim falls to 16-30-2 (34 points), so there were some expectations hanging in the air. But Ducks goalie John Gibson was outstanding, forcing the Stars to dig in even deeper.

“It was tough sledding tonight,” said Stars coach Pete DeBoer. “John Gibson, I feel every time we play him he gives them a chance to win. He was excellent, and they played hard. It was tough to get the goals we got tonight, they made us earn them, so glad to get the win and get out of here.”

It was another sign of just how determined the Stars can be. Heiskanen said he had to shake the rust off, but then he was the one who came up with a tying goal in the third period. Harley, the 22-year-old defenseman who was paired with him, made a beautiful play skating through the defense to set up the Heiskanen goal, then bolted up the ice in overtime and beat Gibson for the game-winning goal.

“His ability to skate . . . he blew by everybody on the ice there from goal line to goal line,” DeBoer said. “It was pretty impressive for a young defenseman to be able to skate like that.”

Harley has 10 goals on the season and played 24 minutes a game while Heiskanen was out. He logged 22:25 on Thursday and had a goal and an assist.

“I think he played real well,” Heiskanen said. “He’s moving and making good plays. It was nice to play with him tonight.”

The feeling was mutual, Harley said.

“He’s our best player, everyone knows that,” Harley said of Heiskanen. “You just feel calmer when he’s on the ice. He’s so good defensively and he makes my life easier out there.”

The bottom line is that Dallas now sits 8-6 in games decided past regulation and is keeping pace with Colorado and Winnipeg in the Central Division. The Stars are finding different ways to win, and that feels pretty good.

“Mentally, we never quit,” Heiskanen said. “There is always a chance to come back. We trust each other and I thought we played pretty well all game. Gibson was really good, but we knew it was coming, so just keep doing what we do best and trust each other.”

Let’s just say they stuck the pin in it at just the right time.

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.