Heika’s Take: Resilience shines bright as Stars sweep West coast road trip

The Stars could have easily folded Saturday night.

They were finishing up a weird road trip, they were playing the second night of a back-to-back and they gave up a goal in the first minute of the game to a team that was 5-1-1 in its past seven home games.

But instead of crumbling, the team came together and earned a hard-fought 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena.

“It was a gritty, gutsy win for us,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “We wanted to end the trip right, we wanted this to be the best game of the trip. We knew it would have to be considering the opponent, and I thought we got a great effort.”

The Kings (32-20-11) are in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race, so they presented a bigger challenge than San Jose or Anaheim. Plus, there is the chance Dallas (40-17-9) could meet Los Angeles in the first round if the playoffs aligned that way. So when Kevin Fiala redirected a puck past Scott Wedgewood just 26 seconds into the game, there was a moment of trepidation.

But both Wedgewood and the Stars shook it off, and Dallas dominated the remainder of the first period.

“Sometimes you have to tip your hat to the other side and go back to work,” Wedgewood said. “I thought I did that, and I thought the team did an even better job and then we were able to blank them for the rest of the game.”

Wedgewood finished with 24 saves to move his record to 14-6-5 on the year.

“He’s been doing that all year for us,” DeBoer said. “He’s given us those types of games in relief and when we have needed them. He was really solid tonight.”

The Stars needed that, as they struggled to beat Cam Talbot early despite some impressive scoring chances. Dallas doubled up LA on shots on goal and shot attempts in the first 20 minutes and still trailed 1-0. In fact, it took a great goal by Radek Faksa to finally give the offense some encouragement, because just 18 seconds later Jason Robertson scored to make it 2-1.

The Faksa goal was a pretty shot and the result of hard work from the fourth line. DeBoer said that was a great symbol of how the Stars had to fight on Saturday.

“I thought our fourth line might have been our best line, which is a testament to our depth,” DeBoer said.

Faksa had just three goals in the first half of the season and now has three in the past four games. He said you just have to keep pushing.

“That’s how hockey sometimes works,” he said. “I think we’ve been pretty decent the whole year. The fourth line can make a difference and we have to be better and better and prepare for the playoffs.”

Robertson continues to see his numbers improve, as he has 22 goals. Wyatt Johnston added a power play goal for his 23rd tally of the season, and Joe Pavelski scored an empty-netter to hit 23 goals as well.

“I think we were mentally strong,” said Robertson. “I don’t think there was any doubt we were going to have a strong performance tonight. Everyone showed up and we got it done.”

As for Wedgewood’s strong spine, Robertson said, “You need that this time of year when the games get tight. It’s a luxury to have the two goalies we do.”

That win gave DeBoer his 600th career NHL victory and kept the Stars in first place in the Central Division. Dallas now has a season-best five-game win streak and finishes up a stretch where it played 17 games in 33 days out of the All-Star Break, including 12 on the road.

“I’m really proud of our group,” DeBoer said. “We have played as many or more games than anybody in the league, and more on the road than anyone in the league to this point.”

Dallas is now 21-9-5 on the road, setting up a closing push that includes 10 of the final 16 games at American Airlines Center.

“We have set ourselves up with a good schedule over the next month,” DeBoer said. “We’ve got to take advantage of that, but we’ve gotten through a gauntlet of a schedule here and I thought battled through it pretty impressively.”

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.