Three Takeaways From Stars Comeback Win Over Blackhawks

The Dallas Stars had to overcome a Scott Wedgewood injury and a gritty, grinding effort from the Chicago Blackhawks to scratch out a 3-1 win in Chicago.

The Stars scored three unanswered third period goals with the help of some major Pete DeBoer line shuffling and a valiant performance from Jake Oettinger in relief of injured starter Scott Wedgewood.

A day after Oettinger returned from a four week absence with a groin injury, Wedgewood laid down uncomfortably after a save in the second period and later removed himself from the game after staying in for several more minutes and fighting off some high danger scoring chances by Chicago.

The Stars gave up the go-ahead goal to Boris Katchouk after Oettinger entered the game and trailed 1-0 going into the third period, but for the second game in a row, Chicago could not hold a 1-0 lead in the final frame. 

A power play goal from Matt Duchene kicked things off, and then Mason Marchment kicked a puck from skate to stick and walked in from the blue line on a 2-on-1 to beat Petr Mrazek for the game winning goal. Joe Pavelski finished things off with an empty netter after Esa Lindell tied up the stick of Blackhawks forward Rem Pitlick, who otherwise would have had a tap in.

The storylines were pretty obvious in this game, so let's dive in.

Just when the Stars thought that their top two goaltenders were back in tandem on the ice, Wedgewood removed himself just before the midway point in the game. Wedgewood looked noticeably uncomfortable after a save earlier in the period, but gutted it out for a pretty significant chunk of time.

According to DeBoer, Wedgewood initially felt good enough to keep playing but the injury continued to tighten up throughout the rest of his time in net until it became too much to play through.

Oettinger was forced into emergency duty for the final 31 minutes of action, making 20 of 21 saves and getting the win. In his postgame interview with the TV broadcast, Oettinger said that one minute he was watching the Kansas City Chiefs playoff game, and the next, he was hopping over the bench to finish half a hockey game.

The biggest relief, aside from getting the win, was his ability to finish the game uninjured coming off a groin injury that kept him out four weeks. DeBoer said that the last thing anyone wanted was to play Oettinger in a back-to-back scenario coming off of that injury.

Moving forward, Matt Murray will likely see another call-up while everyone waits to see the prognosis on Wedgewood. Murray won his only start while called up during Oettinger's injury, a 4-0 shutout in Minnesota.

If the injury to Wedgwood is more than a few days, Dallas will face some tough decisions in net before the All Star break. The Stars have another back-to-back next Saturday and Sunday, and have seven games remaining before Oettinger heads to Toronto to represent the Stars in the All Star Game.

Marchment took a tripping penalty nine minutes into the game and then unnecessarily tacked on a roughing call to make it a double minor. Seth Jones fell to the ice and Marchment gave him a shove to the head afterwards. The Blackhawks didn't score on the power play.

Later on, Marchment made up for his earlier transgressions by drawing a cross-checking penalty early in the third period that set up Matt Duchene's game tying power play goal. Then, he had a beautiful individual effort play and scored what would go on to be the game winning goal with just over five minutes left in the game.

Last season was a struggle for Marchment but this season, even with the occasional bad play, he has more than made up for it with his offensive efforts and ability to draw penalties, and leads Dallas with a +16 rating.

In his postgame interview, DeBoer noted that the fourth line had the most jump and the freshest legs through two periods, so he wanted to sprinkle them throughout the rest of the lineup for the third period in an effort to try and get the team going.

Needless to say, it did the trick. The lines looked like this:

This is by far the most drastic difference in lines so far this season for the Stars. DeBoer has kept the lineup mostly intact, sometimes rotating a forward in and out, but generally keeping the top three lines the same game in and game out.

In the 4-3 loss to Nashville the night previous, DeBoer moved a few pieces around for the third period, but nothing this drastic. Credit to the players, because they made the new combinations look seamless en route to three unanswered goals in the third. The Hawks were putting a lot of pressure on the Stars in the second period, but Dallas looked like a different team after the line shuffle.

Dallas now flies home to frigid temperatures and awaits the Los Angeles Kings in a Tuesday night showdown of two playoff teams. The Kings have lost eight straight.

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