On a night where all three top teams in the Central Division played and won, Dallas stayed two points ahead of Colorado and Winnipeg with a win over the Anaheim Ducks.
The Dallas Stars left nothing to chance with a brilliant first period and cruised to a 6-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks Friday night.
It was a night to celebrate, as Roope Hintz reached the 300 point milestone in the NHL, Mason Marchment set a new career high for goals in a season and Chris Tanev scored his first goal for Dallas. Miro Heiskanen also became the first defenseman in Dallas franchise history to record six assists over a two game span.
Jamie Benn scored for the second game in a row to give him 11 goals on the season. Radek Faksa and Joe Pavelski rounded out the goal scorer list of six different players. The power play cashed in three times, and the lead for the Stars was never in doubt.
Tanev opened the scoring just over a minute into the game with a wrist shot that floated untouched through a maze of players and over the shoulder of John Gibson, who lost all three games against the Stars this season. It was Tanev's second goal of the season, and first against a team other than the Stars since March 26, 2022.
Hintz added a power play tally on a Heiskanen shot from the point to make it 2-0 near the end of the first period, and Faksa quickly gave the Stars a three goal lead just over a minute later. After the strong first where Dallas put 20 shots on net, it appeared that they could put cruise control on and finish out the rest of the game knowing that they had to play a back-to-back against Los Angeles a mere 24 hours later.
The Stars did allow Anaheim to make a late push, and Jake Oettinger had to make 13 saves in the third period to limit Anaheim to only two goals on the night. Oettinger finished with 25 total saves on the night.
In an unusual move, Dallas went with seven defensemen and healthy scratched Craig Smith in favor of Nils Lundkvist. Lundkvist only played just over nine minutes, but it allowed the rest of the six defensemen to all limit their time on ice to under 20 minutes. While head coach Pete DeBoer said he liked that in a back-to-back scenario, he also realized it meant doing it at the expense of playing his forward group more.
Smith was replaced on the fourth line by Ty Dellandrea, and the duo of Matt Duchene and Mason Marchment instead played with a revolving door of other top-nine players. Hintz, Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston, and Logan Stankoven were among the players that took extra shifts to try and get that duo going. The strategy did pay off for Marchment, who scored his first goal in nine games and set a career high with 19 total on the season.
Dallas is right back at it just up the highway from Anaheim against the Los Angeles Kings Saturday, and look to bank two more points that are becoming more and more necessary to stay ahead of the competition at the top of the Central Division. Colorado defeated Minnesota 2-1 in overtime Friday, and Winnipeg blanked Seattle 3-0. Both teams stayed two points behind Dallas, and Winnipeg also plays again Saturday in Vancouver. The Avalanche don't play again until Tuesday in Calgary.
The goal of finishing first place in the division became even more important Friday, as the trade deadline came and went with both Colorado and Winnipeg significantly bolstering their rosters. The Stars only move ended up being the acquisition of Chris Tanev, but the addition of Logan Stankoven has been like another deadline acquisition with no cost associated to it. Dallas has a well-balanced roster moving forward, and the only question now is what defensive pairings will stick by mid-April with Tanev becoming a fixture in the lineup.
For now, the Stars can only take care of business one game at a time, and hope for more successful nights like the 6-2 drubbing of Anaheim.
Make sure you bookmark THN's Dallas Stars site for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more.
- Follow Taylor on Twitter: @THN_taylor