Heika’s Take: Marchment dazzles in the clutch, Stars down NHL-leading Jets

Mason Marchment is taking some huge steps forward right now.

So are the Stars.

Marchment, 29, signed a four-year contract with the Stars in the summer of 2022 and has been a solid depth forward since joining the team. This season, though, he’s becoming much more than that. The big winger on Sunday created one of the better regular-season highlights in recent memory for this team.

Marchment took a pass from Thomas Harley entering the offensive zone, outmuscled Winnipeg defenseman Josh Morrissey, and then made a spinning backhand shot that beat goalie Connor Hellebuyck high corner and broke a 1-1 tie late in the third period en route to a 3-1 win at American Airlines Center.

The timing of the play was perfect, the execution of the play was perfect, and the impact of the play was perfect. Dallas not only took a big win over the top team in the NHL standings, it avenged a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Jets in Winnipeg a few weeks back. The win also stacked a second straight impressive victory (they beat Colorado 5-3 on Friday) after its worst game of the season on Wednesday in Chicago.

“Big win,” said Stars coach Pete DeBoer. “The opponent, the time of year, and what happened last game we played them. I really liked our effort. We did a lot of good things to earn the win.”

The Marchment play was sensational. Both Harley and Jake Oettinger were credited with assists on the play, but each said they were lucky to get the puck to Marchment. Somehow they did though, and then the lanky forward took it into his own hands. He said he was trying to react and think as Morissey pressured him, and the spin move to the backhand was what he came up with.

“I just tried to protect it as long as I could and get a good shot off,” Marchment said. “I was trying to go there [to the upper corner] and sometimes it doesn’t work like that, but I’m happy it did. He’s a good goalie. You’ve got to keep testing him.”

The Stars did that against Hellebuyck, who is the defending Vezina Trophy winner and currently leading all NHL goalies in most metrics this season. He was in the victorious crease the last time the two teams met, shutting out Dallas through over 58 minutes of play before Roope Hintz ended the bid. Oettinger was pulled in that game, so the rematch had some drama attached to it. The two goalies are among the top candidates for Team USA’s crease in the Four Nations Face-off and rosters are expected to be announced this week.

”It would be one of the coolest things in my career to make that team, so hopefully I’ve done enough up to this point to do that, and I feel like I have,” Oettinger said.

Fans in Winnipeg were chanting “U.S. backup” at Oettinger when he was pulled and he said that added to the motivation.

“I mean, if you don’t want to beat them, I don’t know why you’re even playing,” Oettinger said. “I’m motivated no matter what the fans are chanting at me.”

Everyone on the team understood the battle and said they were excited that Oettinger got the victory.

“I’m really happy for him,” DeBoer said. “I think the guys knew after the last time we played Winnipeg, they wanted to give him a better effort in front of him, and I thought we did that tonight.”

The game was largely a goalie battle throughout. The Jets took a 1-0 lead on their first shot of the game via a wicked redirection from Adam Lowry, but the Stars tied it up later in the first. Dallas created a ton of chances that Hellebuyck turned away – including holding the struggling Stars power play to an 0-for-5 night, but Dallas kept pushing. Evgenii Dadonov had several chances and open looks. Tyler Seguin almost scored on a wraparound. Matt Duchene put several good chances on net. Wyatt Johnston finally scored a goal off a nice pass from Harley in transition, and the score stayed locked until the third period.

Harley also had the assist on the Marchment goal, but said both he and Oettinger got lucky.

“I didn’t see [Marchment] at all,” Harley said. “I just tried to flip it out. Thank God it got through."

Marchment has been on a tear of late, and DeBoer said he is showing the kind of special skill that makes him a special player. A late bloomer, Marchment played his first five pro seasons in the minors before having a breakout year with Florida. That led to his four-year deal with the Stars, and he had 22 goals among 53 points (both career-highs) in 81 games last season.

This year, he has 10 goals and 24 points in 22 games, and people are starting to mention him among the Stars’ top players.

“Mason has really evolved as a player,” DeBoer said. “He’s just getting better and better. He was a late bloomer, and because of that, he’s still got runway left despite the fact he’s not a young guy.”

Once that goal was scored, the Stars then shut things down for the final seven minutes, and Hintz added an empty-net goal to get a huge win. Dallas moves to 15-8-0 (30 points) while Winnipeg falls to 18-7-0 (36 points). It was a huge game to keep the Stars within shooting distance of the Jets and the Wild, while also building a cushion ahead of the Avalanche.

“They’ve been the best team in the League so far this year, so we’re chasing them right now,” Oettinger said. “Guys stepped up and had a huge effort,” Oettinger said. “[Marchment] stepped up and made that huge play and guys sacrificed and played the right way the rest of the game.”

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 X @MikeHeika.