Heika’s Take: Power play surge helps Stars bury Wild to complete road trip sweep

As prophetic statements go, you couldn’t get much more on target than Stars coach Pete DeBoer before Sunday’s showdown with Minnesota.

“They have a history of trying to make these really physical games, so we’re going to expect that,” DeBoer said. “And if they cross the line, we’re going to have to make them pay on the power play.”

But the man advantage has been in a terrible slump this year, ranking 29th in the league at 10.8 percent. Doesn’t that concern you?

“The power play has been a hot topic. I’m not as concerned about it as maybe everyone else is,” DeBoer said confidently.

After scoring just four power play goals in the first 13 games, Dallas came up with five in an 8-3 win over the Wild. Minnesota handed out eight power plays, including a five-minute major on a boarding hit that knocked defenseman Thomas Harley out of the game. This was the same Minnesota team that knocked Joe Pavelski out of the First Round with a concussion last season, and the Stars used the power play to win that series in six games.

“Maybe this was what we needed,” DeBoer said of the power play struggles. “A team that took a bunch of stupid penalties so we could work on it.”

It was clear the Stars wanted some revenge on the delinquent Wild, and this was about as good as it gets on the scoreboard. Dallas sweeps a three-game road trip, including two games against Central Division foes. They move to 7-1-1 on the road this year and 10-3-1 overall. Minnesota falls to 5-8-2, and that’s a big stumble as they head to Sweden for a couple of international games.

“It kind of bled into this year from last year’s success,” said forward Jason Robertson of the fact Dallas used the power play to humble the Wild in the playoffs. “Hopefully, we can keep this momentum going forward.”

That’s the key for the Stars, who just got through one of the toughest parts of the schedule and now return home for five straight at American Airlines Center. Dallas had been winning games, but not getting complete efforts. They were starting slow or losing faceoff battles or not getting power play goals. But on Sunday, they started on time and really controlled the first 10 minutes of the game. The Stars were given the man advantage 50 seconds into the game, and Pavelski took all of six seconds to score. The first power play unit clicked right off the bat, and it sure looked like Dallas would have its first intermission lead of the season.

Radek Faksa then scored on an unassisted shorthanded goal to make it 2-0, and the Stars had Minnesota on its heels. The Wild cut it to 2-1 at the 10:34 mark of the first, but then Matt Duchene scored the team’s only even-strength goal of the game to make it 3-1. That was huge when Minnesota scored in the final minute of the first period to make it 3-2, but the power play took over in the second period.

Wyatt Johnston scored off an assist from Duchene two minutes into the second, and then Evgenii Dadonov added his fourth goal of the year 12 minutes into the second for a 5-2 lead. Minnesota once again cut the margin – this time to 5-3 – but that’s when Brandon Duhaime drove Harley into the boards. The big defenseman went face first and had to leave the game immediately. Duhaime received a five-minute major and a game misconduct, and the Stars received the last bit of motivation they needed to bury the Wild.

“That’s the story of the game,” said Tyler Seguin, who finished with two assists. “We’ve seen it a few times against these guys. They come so aggressive and we accept that and try to make the little plays. We were glad our power plays clicked. We’ve been trying to find that for the last little while. And then when something happens to Harls, you want to get a few on that one, so I’m glad we did.”

Dallas scored twice on the five-minute major – both from Robertson – and took a 7-3 lead. Johnston would then add a shorthanded goal late in the third to provide the final score.

Johnston and Robertson each finished with two goals and an assist. Miro Heiskanen had three assists. It was the kind of performance that can not only shake the power play out of its doldrums, but also potentially spark players like Robertson, who has been battling to get his goal-scoring going.

“Hopefully,” Robertson said when asked if this could create a good vibe with the man advantage. “The movement, guys getting shots through, recovering, winning draws, breakouts were clean. It’s something that we’ve had many meetings about and it’s great we had one game and now we want to keep this thing rolling and have a top five power play like we did last year.”

When asked if the frustration was getting into the heads of the players, Robertson said: “Yeah, how do you not? When you run dry, it’s unfortunate. We’re still winning games, but we’re putting a lot of stress on our 5-on-5 and our penalty killers by not pulling our weight. But this is a great step in the right direction.”

It is just one game, and the home games present a new challenge. The Stars can’t just come to AAC and think things are going to be easy. They have to bring the hunger of this last road trip back with them.

“You can’t take it for granted,” Robertson said. “I do follow this stuff and I do know this is the first game we’ve had a lead going into the second period. So it’s not going to change at home. We’ve got to try to get off to a good start at home games and try to keep our momentum going.”

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.