Thomas Harley scored a late goal for the Dallas Stars in a 4-3 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Tuesday.
Stars lines
- Hryckowian – Johnston – Rantanen
- Robertson – Hintz – Bourque
- Steel – Duchene – Benn
- Bäck – Faksa – Blackwell
- Lindell – Heiskanen
- Harley – Lundkvist
- Capobianco – Petrovic
- Oettinger
- DeSmith
Scratches: Adam Erne, Nathan Bastian, Ilya Lyubushkin (lower-body).
Top story
Blown leads.
The best thing for a Stars team that is struggling to find goals and wins consistently right now is to get out to a 3-0 lead. Thank you to Matt Duchene and Roope Hintz for that.
The worst thing for that same team? Blowing a 3-0 lead in the third period. Well, unfortunately, both things can be true.
The good news for the Stars is that they once again found some late heroics, as Thomas Harley scored off a face-off win after an unnecessary St. Louis icing. The similarities between Friday’s game in Dallas and tonight in St. Louis…
It would be cool if these two teams played in the playoffs.
Live game notebook
Period 1
- According to the ESPN broadcast, Tyler Seguin traveled with the team for the first time since his knee injury in New York. Seguin is there for some team bonding, camaraderie, and support like he was last year shortly after he birth of his daughter. Stars coach Glen Gulutzan did not confirm this, but the plan was also to have Lian Bichsel on the trip to continue skating and rehabbing his foot injury. He is not expected to play until at least the final two games before the break.
- Dallas did an excellent job stacking up the blue line on its penalty kill. St. Louis either turned the puck over at the blue or had to dump it in or carry it along the wall. Stars pinned them to the outside, forced turnovers, and sent it down. Nearly flawless kill after Duchene’s cross checking penalty.
- Sam Steel got absolutely leveled by Robby Fabbri. Then Steel turned the puck over in the offensive zone. Tough shift.
- SUCH a good recovery by Kyle Capobianco there. Jimmy Snuggerud won the race, poked the puck around Capobianco, but he was able to retreat, read the play, and get into the right spot to intercept a centering pass.
- Shots are nine apiece, but the period was mostly controlled by St. Louis. Dallas did have a good-looking power play. Jordan Binnington made a few big saves.
Stars 0, Blues 0
Period 2
- Mikko Rantanen did Mikko Rantanen things to set up Duchene’s second power-play goal in as many games. The no-look, the accuracy through the skates.
- And just like that, 40 seconds later, Duchene throws a backhand toward the slot, and it bounces off a skate and in. Sometimes, the floodgates open rather quickly after a slump. Duchene has nearly half as many goals tonight as he did the rest of the season. Getting Duchene going is a HUGE priority for Dallas. He has looked much better the past handful of games. Just after the goal, he threw a long, blind breakout pass, and it landed right on the tape.
- Colin Blackwell with a high tip that trickled about two inches wide of the left post.
- Snuggerud hit the left post on the other side after a tic-tac-toe 3-on-2 rush for the Blues.
- Dallas has done a great job locking it down defensively, specifically forcing St. Louis to make plays it doesn’t want to or blocking shots when they do get good opportunities.
- Wyatt Johnston collected a puck in the slot facing the blue line, but he saw Rantanen breaking to the backdoor and spun around to the forehand. It nearly connected and would’ve been highlight reel.
- I am not sure what the Blues were doing on their penalty kill, but it didn’t work. Dallas won the faceoff, then St. Louis backed off and left a MASSIVE passing lane through the box wide open for Jason Robertson to find Hintz on the backside. Good pass, but the lane was wide enough for a dump truck to back its way through in the snow. Stars power play is looking like it’s back to ridiculous form.
- Elsewhere…
Stars 3, Blues 0
Period 3
- Jake Oettinger made two big saves right at the start of the period. Read the rebound well in the slot.
- ANOTHER big blocked shot, this time by Mavrik Bourque at the end of a long shift in the Dallas end.
- Duchene had a great chance of the hat trick, but the puck rolled up on him on a 2-on-1, and he missed the net on the near side.
- Blues are pushing, but the Dallas defense and Oettinger have held so far.
- Well… not anymore. Seconds later, Fabbri deked Thomas Harley to the middle of the ice and beat Oettinger over the blocker. Not a good play by Harley, who came way too far over to support Capobianco on the rush. The Stars challenged the play for offside, but there wasn’t enough evidence to reverse it. Good goal, and now St. Louis gets a power play.
- Oh boy, the Stars killed the penalty, but it is now 3-2 because of Brayden Schenn. Schenn scored off the rush because of a mistake from Nils Lundkvist, who chased his man to the corner on the same side of the ice rather than sitting at home on his side in the high-danger area. It would have also helped to have Capobianco slow play this between the puck carrier and forward driving the middle at the blue line. That left Schenn wide open, and the Stars forwards were unable to get back in time to help. A play full of mistakes. Game on.
- Side note: TJ Oshie was an awesome player. Go watch some highlights, especially of his shootout performance against Russia in the 2014 Olympics.
- Justin Hryckowian fed Rantanen for a low-angle one-timer that hit the post. Hryckowian then drove the net and nearly chipped the rebound over the top of Binnington. Hryckowian has deferred a bit too much and faded from his most effective game tonight. Makes sense when playing with elite skill like Johnston and Rantanen.
- Dallas continues to be a mess in its own end. Harley turned the puck over behind his own net, then hit the official with his next clearing attempt, and the Blues jumped all over it to tie the game. Barf.
- So… Remember when Robertson scored the game winner late on Friday after a St. Louis icing? Well… This time, Harley did the EXACT same thing with a point shot off a faceoff win. As Robert says here, the puck hits Mathieu Joseph on its way in… Evening out the puck luck in quick succession. Wow. That’s crazy and nearly identical to the previous game.
- Bourque with one final shot block to seal the win. What a wild game.
Final: Stars 4, Blues 3
