In order to win Game 2 late Monday night (technically, Tuesday morning) at the AAC — which was needed in order to survive according to coach Pete DeBoer — the Stars had to throw everything they had at Colorado.
An early goal from Tyler Seguin, just back for three games now after missing more than four months. Their first even-strength goal of the playoffs from defenseman Thomas Harley in the second period. A desperate penalty kill at the end of regulation and into overtime to stay afloat. Finally, a game-winner from Colin Blackwell, a healthy scratch Saturday night for Game 1.
DeBoer wanted him for energy. He gave Dallas an overtime goal and a 4-3 victory.
“I love rising to the occasion and finding moments like this,‘’ Blackwell said.
So, what’s next?
I don’t think there is any question, even after coming back from 1-0 and 3-2 deficits to beat Colorado on Monday, the Stars need more when they get to Denver. More as in Miro.
Dallas has tried to make up for the absence of not only its best defenseman but best player for three months now. The Stars even thrived at times. But not lately. Not down the stretch when they slid into a frightening seven-game losing streak, not only costing them a shot at the No. 1 seed in the West but losing all confidence in the process.
For two nights, they have competed with Colorado at the AAC and come away with a split. It will get tougher in Ball Arena. The Stars were a good road team in the playoffs a year ago — they even rallied from an 0-2 deficit against Vegas after losing twice at home — but it needs to be remembered that was a different team. An extremely healthy team that finished the regular season with the best record in the West.
“I mean our season [was] on the line, let’s be honest,‘’ DeBoer said. “We got away with it [an 0-2 deficit] last year in the first series against Vegas. But you’re probably not going to go to that well again this year and come up winning. So we knew our season was on the line.‘’
The Stars escaped with the victory, but what now? Colorado will likely get a huge emotional boost from the return of captain Gabriel Landeskog, who has missed three entire seasons — everything since skating off with the Stanley Cup in 2022 — following two major knee surgeries. He skated in the pregame warmup Monday but did not dress for Game 2. Hard to think the Avs won’t give their leader a look Wednesday night at home.
Heiskanen’s importance to this team is self-evident. Without him, Harley becomes the featured defenseman and, yes, he got that even-strength goal to give Dallas a brief 2-1 lead in the second period. His power play direction needs a lot of work, though, and it’s not a fault of his. He just isn’t Miro.
In the playoffs last year, Heiskanen’s 28 minutes, 11 seconds of ice time per night was more than three minutes greater than any of the Edmonton, Florida or New York players that made it as far as the conference finals. DeBoer nearly plays him into the ground because Heiskanen is that important, stabilizing matters at one end while facing the top opposing forwards and leading the charge the other direction on the power play when needed.
Heiskanen has been missing since injuring a knee against Vegas in a collision with Mark Stone (him again) on Jan. 28. But he has been skating with the team for a considerable amount of time now, and it seems likely he will return at some point in this series. If Dallas has to wait any longer than the Denver games Wednesday and Saturday, that will be too late.
It seems far less likely that Jason Robertson is playing against the Avalanche. He left the final regular-season game at Nashville in a knee brace. He led the Stars with 35 goals this year, has scored 80 points each of the last two years and topped out with 109 in 2022-23, the first season of what Dallas hoped was an extended conference finals run. So his loss is significant, but the trade deadline pickups of Mikko Rantanen and Mikael Granlund, along with Seguin’s return after a long absence (he scored the Stars’ first goal Monday), means DeBoer still has considerable forward depth at his disposal.
It was on display in Game 2.
Not so on the back end where he’s shorter than ever on quality D-men, he’s missing his absolute best and Jake Oettinger has struggled to handle the load. Otter was not great in the first two periods but he held Colorado scoreless in the last two, so there are signs of life.
The Stars are coming back into play. They need more to knock off Colorado and prepare for a probable date with Winnipeg. They need Miro.
