Heika’s Take: Stars enter break on jolly note, secure gritty road win in Utah

Of all the clubs the Pete DeBoer-coached Stars have in their golf bag, resilience seems to be one of the most reliable.

The lads in Victory Green were in a bit of a slump this week. Now, truth be told, it was a relatively small blip in which the team lost two close games to teams that have a recent history of winning, and those losses would be easy to swallow in the big picture of an 82-game season. But the most recent defeat at the hands of the New York Rangers featured an 0-for-7 performance on the power play in which Dallas couldn’t score in 17 minutes of man advantage time and also gave up a shorthanded goal.

So the natives were restless, and that created some bad juju around the team.

And when that same power play was unable to hit pay dirt in the first three minutes of Monday’s game at Utah, well, it could have snowballed.

But just when it looked like Dallas might exacerbate the problem and cause some restless nights before Christmas, the old resilience driver knocked one down the middle of the fairway. Goalie Casey DeSmith was brilliant against an early barrage from the Utah Hockey Club, the fragile hands of the shooters put together three pretty scoring plays, and the Stars came up with a significant 3-2 win at Delta Center.

“We haven’t lost three in a row [in regulation] in my time here in the regular season,” DeBoer said. “They find a way to dig deep in adverse situations and get the job done. They did that again tonight.”

DeSmith was the primary hero. Signed as a free agent in the summer to back up Jake Oettinger, the 33-year-old has had his ups and downs. He was recently sidelined by flu, which led to Oettinger starting eight straight games. That wasn’t an ideal situation for the Stars, who were hoping to balance out the goaltending assignments this season. DeSmith making his first start in three weeks under heavy pressure also wasn’t ideal, but the veteran has proven all year he can handle that weight.

DeSmith had a huge road win in Boston in October, came up with a 36-save performance against Utah three weeks ago, and found the magic once again on Monday. DeSmith stopped 10 shots in the first period and that gave the Stars the chance to find their game. Utah had played on Sunday, so it lost some energy in the second period, and Dallas was able to build up a 3-1 lead.

“He was huge,” said center Roope Hintz. “There were a lot of chances and he kept us in the game. It was great to find a way to win.”

The Stars opened the scoring on a great shift by the fourth line, who were on their toes for much of the first period. Sam Steel forced a turnover in the neutral zone and Oskar Bäck got the puck to Colin Blackwell bearing down on the right wing. With Steel as an option for the pass, Blackwell picked a corner and beat Utah goalie Karel Vejmelka for a 1-0 lead.

Utah came right back and tied it on a deflection, but DeSmith was fantastic the rest of the way. While the Clubers got Grade-A chance after Grade-A chance, DeSmith turned each one away. It was big for the Stars, who needed the added belief.

The Stars happily entered the first intermission tied and then slowly found their legs. Dallas had a 17-6 advantage in shots on goal in the second period and scored twice. Mavrik Bourque made a great set up to Hintz for his team-leading 15th goal. Wyatt Johnston pulled a similar feat a few minutes later as he flew behind the net and found an open Jamie Benn in the slot for Benn’s seventh goal of the season.

“The second period we started not to turn the pucks over in the neutral zone,” said Hintz. “We started to hold onto pucks and started to make some plays. That was the important thing we cleaned up there.”

DeBoer has been experimenting with some changes in recent games, and both seemed to pay off. Bourque is starting to establish a kinship with Hintz, and Benn seems to be rekindling his relationship with Johnston.

Both things are good signs for a team that has struggled to score goals at times over the past month.

Utah came into the game on an eight-game point streak (6-0-2), but the former Arizona Coyotes continue to struggle with the Stars. Dallas is now 22-2-1 in its last 25 games against the group, dating back to the spring of 2016. The win puts Dallas 20-13-0, good for 40 points and in a playoff spot as the League goes on break for the next three days. A loss would have dropped the Stars below Utah (16-12-6).

“Nobody wants to go into Christmas on a losing note,” DeSmith said. “Everyone wants to go home to their families and feel good about hockey for a couple of days.”

The Stars can definitely do that. They are 9-3-0 against division teams this season and in position to make a run out of the break. Hintz is scoring and Benn has strung together a dozen solid games. Maybe Jason Robertson, Logan Stankoven and Johnston are ready to heat up as well.

Bottom line, this team seems to respond when things get tough.

“All you have to do is look at the standings and see what those points mean,” DeBoer said on meeting the challenge. “It’s still early in the season to be scoreboard watching too much, but any time you can win on the road in a tough building like this, you’ll take it.”

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.