The Stars blamed the Hockey Gods for their fate last season, one ravaged by injuries and overtime losses, sparse with rest and rife with interruptions. It was a season of divine intervention, and not the good kind.
On Friday night, during a 3-2 overtime win over the Los Angeles Kings, the Stars relied on the Hockey Gods to save them. They obliged, and so did Denis Gurianov and Braden Holtby.
Gurianov scored the game-winning goal with 45 seconds left in overtime. Tyler Seguin and Miro Heiskanen scored power-play goals. Holtby finished his Stars home debut with 43 saves.
“There’s two things that come out of that game for me,” coach Rick Bowness said. “One, good teams find a way to win. We found a way to win. That’s the most important thing. Two is we know we can play a lot better than that. That’s the good thing.”
The game was the third in five that has extended beyond regulation for the Stars. They won in overtime in New York. They pulled out a victory in a shootout in Pittsburgh.
For the first time in 19 months, the Stars played in front of a packed American Airlines Center crowd. It was a homecoming of sorts for the fans, for Seguin, for Alexander Radulov. It was supposed to be a raucous party conducted by those in Victory Green that echoed through downtown.
That party arrived fashionably late in the third period — after 50 minutes of being outplayed and outshot by Los Angeles, after Holtby kept Dallas in the game and after the Stars’ power play dented the scoreboard twice. Heiskanen tied the score to breathe life back into AAC, and Holtby held on before Gurianov finished e in overtime.
That the Stars were able to squeeze points out of Friday night was a minor miracle.
The Kings outshot the Stars 45-23. At the end of the second period, Los Angeles owned a 31-10 edge in shots on goal. The Kings weren’t able to create many significant scoring chances, but they owned possession and stifled any attack Dallas presented.
“We got dominated there for a while,” Seguin said. “Obviously, getting in penalty trouble, that’s going to help their shot totals. But I don’t think we had more than 10-11 after the second. That was the message between just players that we thought we had a lot more to give. There’s nothing really pretty about tonight, our game. But good teams find ways, and we did tonight.”
It was a game the Stars were on the other side of many times last year. They would outplay the opposition only to come away with a loss, either in regulation or in overtime. It was a story re-read to Dallas over and over across the spring, and was part of the reason why Bowness was often encouraged last year, despite the mounting losses.
This season has been different.
Through vast stretches of the short season, the Stars have been outplayed heavily. There was the second period in New York, the first period in Boston and the opening 40 minutes against the Kings on Friday. Entering the night, the Stars were a bottom-10 team in shot share at 5 on 5.
Holtby has held strong in net, but outshot, outchanced and outpossessed is no way to go through a hockey season, son.
Gurianov made sure the result fell Dallas’ way.
He darted down the right wing and shoveled a backhand on net in overtime, beating Jonathan Quick. It was Gurianov’s first goal of the season and should build confidence in the young winger.
The coaching staff has been trying to get Gurianov to better utilize his speed on the outside instead of cutting to the middle and overhandling the puck.
“I know it’s 3 on 3 and there’s more ice and it’s easier to do that, but it’s an important element of his game that he has to build on,” Bowness said.
Gurianov delivered, and so did Holtby, and perhaps the Hockey Gods, too.
