Heika’s Take: Patience pays off as Stars down Oilers in postseason rematch

The Dallas Stars showed a lot of patience Saturday in a 4-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers at American Airlines Center.

Well, to be honest, goalie Jake Oettinger awarded them the chance to show said patience.

Oettinger stopped 30 shots, including 11 in the first period when Dallas was being outgunned 11-2 on the shot clock. That opened the door for his teammates to take control in the second period. Then, thanks to a resurgence from a struggling power play, and a couple of crafty plays by Matt Duchene, Mason Marchment and Roope Hintz, the lads in Victory Green were able to move to 5-1-0 on the season and get a small dosage of revenge on an Edmonton team that knocked them out of the playoffs last season.

“Patient is a nice word for it,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “I mean, let’s be honest, Jake was our best player and then we got our legs as the game went on. I think we didn’t like our first period, but Jake held us in early until we found some legs. The first goal was obviously critical.”

Oettinger, who signed an eight-year contract extension on Thursday that kicks in next season, was once again spectacular. The 25-year-old netminder used his 6-6 frame to calmly close down a talented Oilers team, and pushed his record on the season to 4-0-0 with a 1.48 GAA and .953 save percentage.

“I think I’m just more confident,” Oettinger said.

Oettinger missed a lot of training after offseason surgery in the summer of 2023, and DeBoer said he feels the big goalie is in a much better place after a full summer of healthy workouts.

“He’s healthy. He’s coming off a summer where he actually got to train, unlike last summer,” DeBoer said. “When he’s dialed in, he combines that size with his hockey sense where he’s there before the puck is there.”

He was definitely on in the first period as Oiler captain Connor McDavid was buzzing around and creating chances, but couldn’t find a way to get the puck past Oettinger. It was also frustrating for Stars skaters, because they couldn’t stop the onslaught, but the performance of Oettinger gave players confidence.

“Sometimes, you’ve just got to hang in there,” said Duchene, who scored twice in the game. “Jake…I mean, it should have been 4-0 after the first period if it weren’t for him. If you look at the 60 minutes, they probably shouldn’t have won the game. But I thought, you know, for the last 25 minutes we were the better team.”

A lot turned on a power play late in the second period. With the score tied 0-0, Jason Robertson drew a trip and Dallas got its first power play with 29 seconds left in the period. The Stars entered the game in a 1-for-17 slump this season after going 0-for-14 against Edmonton in the playoffs last season, so the man advantage was obviously a point of discussion. But Hintz won a faceoff back to Duchene and he snapped a shot inside the post to give Dallas the lead and lift a pretty big weight from the shoulders of the players.

“The first goal was obviously critical,” DeBoer said. “We’ve been pressing, so regardless of the situation, I think we needed one to take a deep breath here and relax and hopefully move forward.”

The Stars then took over in the third period. Duchene scored off a patient feed by Marchment, Hintz scored off a nice pass from Logan Stankoven, and Robertson added an empty-net goal. It was actually a pretty impressive performance, despite the slow start.

“Thirty-five minutes for us was garbage, and you‘ve got to stay patient sometimes and be ready for it to break and not get frustrated,” Duchene said. “As a young player, I definitely got frustrated in games like that and then maybe I wasn’t ready for an opportunity on the power play like that. But this team does a really good job of keeping an even keel and that rubs off on everybody.”

Especially against a team like Edmonton that lost in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. As much as the Stars wanted to call it just another game, there was extra motivation.

“I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a little bit of a motivator, but at the same time, all things are even until playoffs,” Duchene said. “Obviously, you can get a little bit of a mental edge, but I mean we were pretty good against them last year and they beat us in the playoffs. So, it doesn’t really matter during the regular season. It’s about winning that race to the playoffs, and then in the playoffs, if you see each other, you’ll see what happens.”

So far, the start of the season has been inconsistent, but the results are pretty darn good. That’s a nice sign for a team that can possibly get itself into a position where it might be even easier to show patience.

“It’s a great start to the season,” Oettinger said. “We want to be the way we were last year. We felt like we weren’t stressed last year at all. We were in the driver’s seat the whole year, and that’s what you want.”

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 (formerly Twitter) @MikeHeika.