Green Machine Musings- A Successful Weekend (Part II) and the Road Ahead

 

Stars rookie Colton Sceviour had a pair of excellent perforamances this weekend

 

            The Dallas Stars played one of their most solid games of the year in Friday night's 7-3 win over the Predators, but the task at hand was barely half over.  For this team to really make a statement that they were firmly in this Western Conference wild card race, they would have to play even better in one of the toughest places to win in the NHL: Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

 

             Now, the men in green had to have possessed slightly more confidence than most entering the home of the Blues, as they had won there just over two weeks earlier in an overtime thriller capped off by Jamie Benn sniping one past Ryan Miller in the extra session.  And what was even more impressive about that win was the fact that the Stars had been playing the day after Rich Peverley collapsed on the bench during a game in Dallas against the Columbus Blue Jackets.  The Stars gave it everything they had that night, and they would most certainly need to give it all again if they were to duplicate the result.

 

 

Ryan Garbutt defends Jaden Schwartz during the game Saturday night

 

               Both teams came out very strong.  While St. Louis dictated possession early on, the Stars made their limited chances count, as Shawn Horcoff picked up a loose puck in the corner and centered it onto the stick of Colton Sceviour, who slid it through the five-hole on Miller for a 1-0 lead just under four minutes into the game.  Dallas poured on the pressure from then on in the period, aided in part by a pair of St. Louis penalties. The Stars tore apart the Blues' penalty kill with lightning-quick rink-wide passes, but couldn't finish the job and find the back of the net.  They also ruined a late-period opportunity with a penalty of their own after giving up a shorthanded chance with around 30 seconds to play in the period.  Regardless, the Green Machine had to feel quite confident going into the locker room with the lead against one of hockey's best teams.

 

Ryan Miller could only watch in horror as the puck inched across his goal line.

 

            We the fans weren't exactly sure what to expect out of the Stars in the second, but we knew that they would need to pad their lead if we were to have a prayer in terms of winning this game.  Pad the lead they did as Vernon Fiddler brought the puck into the zone on a rush and threw it toward the crease, where it deflected off the skate of Sceviour, who had beaten former Star Steve Ott to the net, and trickled across the goal line.  From this moment on, we really felt like we had a chance to win this game.  However, St. Louis would make Dallas pay for taking one too many penalties, as Alexander Steen deflected a point shot from the high slot to cut the Dallas lead in half with 5:44 to play in the period.  But just like against Nashville, the Stars had brought their ability to counterpunch.  Just 25 seconds after Steen's tally, Cody Eakin deflected a Jordie Benn slap shot past Miller to restore the Stars' two-goal cushion.  Unfortunately for Dallas, Trevor Daley took a bad high-sticking penalty with just 14 seconds left in the frame.  The resulting St. Louis power play would carry over to the third, and the end result would not be pretty.

 

             It did not take long for the Blues to cut the Stars' lead back down to one as Alexander Steen tallied his second of the night on a wide-open slap shot just 49 seconds into the period.  Here we go again, right?  Antoine Roussel said "wrong."  The scrappy winger took a pass down the left-wing boards from Jordie Benn and charged in on Miller before wristing one over his blocker to make it a 4-2 game with under 13 minutes to play.  Every Stars fan (myself included) went nuts for a moment, then held their breath until the final horn sounded.  It had been one of the most hard-fought and well-deserved wins on the season, and it gave fans yet another piece of evidence to show in arguing that this team truly is different than those which have come up short these past five years.

 

 

Roussel celebrates his enormous insurance goal in the third

 

              At the end of the game, you knew that if THIS team showed up down the stretch, we were a lock to make the playoffs.  The question now is, can this team build on their recent stretch of solid play and continue to accumulate points?  It starts tonight in Washington at 6:00 on FSSW+ and a number of storylines are worth noting prior to this evening's tilt:

 

• Forward Erik Cole remains on the shelf with an undisclosed upper-body injury.  There is no timetable for his return.

 

• Defenseman Aaron Rome is out yet again and Dallas has turned to a new face to fill the void on the blue line: the 22-year old Swedish-born Patrik Nemeth, who was called up from the AHL's Texas Stars.  The word is that he will make his NHL debut at Verizon Center this evening.

 

 

 

 

A 6'3, 235 lb mean machine on skates, he might just be the shutdown defender that the Big Stars need if they are to make a run at the postseason. I, for one, am very excited about his debut because if he does well tonight and in the coming days, he will surely have an inside track on winning a job on the Dallas blue line next season.

 

•  The Stars currently trail the Coyotes by one point for 8th place in the West with a game in hand on Phoenix.  The Coyotes host the Winnipeg Jets tonight.

• Minnesota appears to have righted the ship for the time-being as they picked up huge wins in both Phoenix and Los Angeles, thus increasing their lead over the Stars for 7th place to six points (although Dallas has two games in hand).  The schedule remains brutal for the Wild, however, so their spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs is far from guaranteed.  They play in Chicago tomorrow night.