Stars’ galvanizing comeback vs. Blackhawks has them in an ideal spot entering Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving #Thanksgiving
For 17 seconds on Wednesday night at the American Airlines Center, an eventual 6-4 Stars comeback win over the Blackhawks was suspended, dangled in between confusion and elation, disbelief and euphoria.
A delirious sellout crowd in downtown Dallas had to pause its gratification, delayed as officials wrestled with the validity of Radek Faksa’s game-winning goal. Seventeen seconds after Faksa initially banked a shot off Petr Mrazek and across the Chicago goalline, the horn blared to signal a goal. Blackhawks forward Jason Dickinson had not saved Chicago with a quick-acting sweep in the crease.
The Stars’ comeback was complete.
Faksa’s goal with 1:33 left in the third period was part of a wild comeback for the Stars, who scored five goals in the final 9:45 on Wednesday night to erase a 4-1 third-period Blackhawks lead and win for the first time when trailing by multiple goals.
It was also the first time the Stars won when trailing entering the third period this season. It was the first win in the NHL this season when trailing by at least three goals in the third period. It was the first time in Stars franchise history they won a game in regulation when trailing by three goals with less than 10 minutes left in the third period.
“Those kind of wins galvanize you, they test your character, they test your gumption,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “It would have been easy to mail it in at the end of two, and go home for Thanksgiving for a day before we went back at it. But we didn’t, and got rewarded for that.”
Blackhawks forward Max Domi scored a rebound goal with 10:23 left in the third period, appearing to ice the game for Chicago. The Blackhawks had thoroughly outplayed and outworked the Stars in the opening 40 minutes on Wednesday, outshooting them 26-15 in the first two periods. Dallas hadn’t lost a game in regulation in almost two weeks. It looked like the hourglass was running out of sand.
Jamie Benn’s power play goal with 9:45 remaining trimmed the lead to 4-2. Mason Marchment’s snipe from the wing squeezed past Mrazek to bring the Stars within one goal with 6:02 left. Ty Dellandrea tipped a Jani Hakanpää shot in the high slot to bring the Stars even with 5:48 left in the third period.
Then Faksa’s goal gave the Stars the lead.
“I wasn’t sure because I was kind of behind the goalline,” Faksa said. “I knew at least half the puck was in, but I couldn’t tell if it’s all the way. Right away, when I came on the bench, they told me ‘it’s in’ because they saw it on the video. So I was just happy, big relief and big turnaround.”
DeBoer said the coaches on the bench knew within 25-30 seconds of Faksa’s goal that it completely crossed the goalline.
Jason Robertson’s empty-netter was his second of two goals Wednesday night, and ensured the Stars would enter Thanksgiving with a win.
The Stars haven’t had to come from behind much this season.
They have scored first in 15 of their 20 games. They’ve spent almost half of their games (29:10 per game) with a lead. A quarter of the way through the season, they have not won a game by a single goal, although empty-netters have played a part in that.
Still, DeBoer, Faksa and the Stars believed that one goal could get them going. Benn provided it when he picked a corner on Mrazek after drawing a tripping penalty on Domi.
“Once we got that power play goal, and the crowd started to go, you could feel it,” DeBoer said. “I don’t know on the road, if maybe you win that game. I think the crowd was a big part of that in the third period.”
Faksa: “Two goals in the NHL, that’s nothing, especially at home, especially with our team. We’ve got lots of offense and we knew if we could score one, two, we can get at least a point or overtime, right?”
The Stars now enter Thanksgiving in first place in the Central Division with 27 points and a 12-5-3 record, a fortunate and deserved spot for a team that is still working out the kinks under a new coach. They entered Wednesday trialing only Vegas in the Western Conference in regulation wins and goal differential.
Before the big comeback against the Blackhawks, DeBoer talked about his first season in San Jose, when the owner talked to the team at Thanksgiving “basically insinuating that the season was over.” (The Sharks were actually 13-9-0 and second in the Pacific Division.)
“What it reminded me of is that this is a process coming in new, with new players and new systems,” DeBoer said. “It takes some time to get moving. I think our group’s grasped it earlier, which I’m happy about, and we’ve won games while we’re going through that process, which is important. We haven’t put ourselves in a hole learning to play the way we want to play.”
Nights like Wednesday help keep them out of holes.
“We have an identity of how we want to play, have an understanding,” Stars forward Joe Pavelski said before the game. “When we’re willing to engage in the things we’ve worked on right from Day 1 of camp, it’s led to success. That’s a big thing.
“We talked about having a good start. It’s nothing verbally about getting to Thanksgiving in a good spot, but that plays right into it.”
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