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Oettinger, Steel Lead Stars to Victory Over Blackhawks

taylor newby
·5 min read

A goal from newly-elevated Sam Steel and a stellar performance from Jake Oettinger led the Dallas Stars to a 3-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks, snapping their two-game losing streak from the NHL's Global Series in Finland.

Steel joined Tyler Seguin and Matt Duchene on the second line with Mason Marchment missing the game due to injury, and wasted no time getting the Stars on the board in the first period of the win. Dallas would never look back from there, keeping hold of the lead until the final whistle.

A win was desperately needed to reset after dropping the two games in Tampere to the Florida Panthers, who are the reigning Stanley Cup Champions and a formidable opponent again this season.

The beginning of the season has been unusual for the Stars, currently off to a good start at 8-4-0 but still only rank third in a competitive Central Division. Despite the good start, the team still has not quite reached their potential or even found their groove with their forward lines.

With that being said, the Stars win over Chicago was a good step in the right direction. The Blackhawks are currently 5-9-1 and rank 28th in the league, so the win was all but necessary. The matchup should be an easy two points for Dallas on paper, but the young Hawks team always puts up a fight, as shown in a near-comeback effort in the previous matchup between the two teams.

One thing head coach Pete DeBoer harped on in Finland was that he did not like the first period of that first game, and lackluster first periods have been a bit of a theme thus far in the season. The only thing offsetting their lack of scoring has been their ability to keep the opposition scoreless in quite a few of their wins, but in their losses, the other team has drawn blood early.

In Thursday's game, the Stars found their footing a couple minutes into the first period and applied pressure from there. Halfway through the first period, Sam Steel opened the scoring with a snipe from near the dot that beat Blackhawks backup goaltender Arvin Soderblom. Steel had several good looks in the opening period, and finally cashed in on a deserved goal. The first frame ended 1-0, but it could have been worse as the Stars out-shot the Blackhawks 16-5.

The second period mirrored the first period, with lots of pressure from the Stars and the shot clock tilting heavily in favor of Dallas. Around the halfway point, Dallas doubled their lead when Tyler Seguin scored on a delayed penalty from an impossible angle on the near the side of the net. The power play has been such a struggle so far that a goal on a 6-on-5 attack with a delayed penalty call looming felt like a blessing.

Going into the third period, the Stars were up 2-0, but Chicago snapped Oettinger's shut out bid at the nine minute mark. Tyler Bertuzzi was left open on a Blackhawks power-play and capitalized on the opportunity in front of the net, an area where Bertuzzi scores most of his goals. In an attempt to even up the score, Chicago pulled their goalie with 90 seconds to go, but Logan Stankoven called game with a long backhand shot into the empty net.

Three takeaways:

  1. Marchment did not play due to an injury suffered in a fight against Nate Schmidt of the Florida Panthers, so Steel took his place up higher in the lineup. The usual fourth-liner made the most of this time with the best line the Stars have had all season, tallying one goal and one assist. Steel was asked to fill in on the secondor third line a few times last season, holding his own with higher quality line-mates and competition. Steel is not always the first choice to get the call up to a better line, but his performance proved once again that his versatility is a main reason Dallas re-signed him in the offseason. Steel was awarded the first star of the game for his performance.

  2. Oettinger bounced back after allowing a season high of six goals in the first of the two Global Series games. He has a history of playing really well after disappointing outings and he did not disappoint last night. Before the game against Florida, he had only allowed a maximum of three goals against in a game. The Stars also continue the trend of having never lost three regular season games in a row in regulation under DeBoer.

  3. One thing DeBoer had mentioned recently was that Nils Lundkvist has been playing the best defense of his entire tenure in Dallas, but that he needed to start making more plays with the puck. If you have followed along with the Lundkvist saga since General Manager Jim Nill acquired him for a first round pick, that line seems a little backwards. It has always been his offense overshadowing his defensive liabilities, but now apparently it is reversed. Sometimes, when a player focuses so hard on improving one thing, he might forget his strengths in another aspect of the game. Lundkvist appeared to take that comment to heart and got more involved in the offense. He tallied his first point of the year, recorded three shots on goal and drew the delayed penalty call that resulted in the Seguin goal.

The Stars still have some kinks to iron out, and a major test comes on Saturday. They head to Canada to take on the Winnipeg Jets, who won 1-0 against the Colorado Avalanche Thursday and are currently an astounding 13-1-0 to start the season. Dallas hasn't had many games against top tier opponents thus far, especially in their own division, so seeing how they measure up against Winnipeg will be a good gauge for the Stars.

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