Regardless of the result, the Stars’ 3-0 win over the Red Wings on Saturday night was likely to be forgettable.
It was a road game against the worst team in the division. It came with little momentum behind it, and with bigger targets to face in the next week as dates with Tampa Bay and Florida loom. Add in that the Stars and Red Wings are two of the worst offenses in the league and that Dallas was missing four regulars on Saturday, the contest was not destined for the highlights.
Until another third-period outburst from Dallas, the game didn’t match even the lowly expectations gently placed on it.
Dallas doesn’t care.
The two points it picked up in Detroit were badly needed, regardless of the opponent. The standings don’t care about style points, just as they don’t care about moral victories. The win was the team’s fourth win in 11 games in March. It also capitalized on Chicago’s fourth straight loss, a streak that is pushing the Stars further and further into the Central Division hunt.
Tanner Kero scored for the Stars, his first NHL goal since Nov. 12, 2017 with Chicago. Andrej Sekera scored his second goal of the season to give the Stars some breathing room. Ty Dellandrea scored his second career NHL goal.
Anton Khudobin responded to his first start in more than a week by making 21 saves in a shutout effort.
The Stars again outshot the Red Wings with a 33-21 edge after a 40-21 advantage on Thursday night. But they actually capitalized on some scoring chances instead of wasting them, including Dellandrea’s power-play goal against a beleaguered Red Wings penalty kill.
Kero scored on an abbreviated breakaway in the final minutes of the second period, sprung to space by Jamie Oleksiak’s nifty cross-ice pass. Kero deked Red Wings goaltender Thomas Greiss and slid the puck between his legs.
The Stars don’t count on Kero to score goals, just as they don’t count on him to kill penalties. He’s largely been a replacement player in the lineup, used in case of injuries this season. On Saturday night, they needed him to fulfill both responsibilities thanks to another rash of absences that affected Dallas.
Andrew Cogliano missed his second straight game with an illness. Blake Comeau was out due to an upper-body injury. Alexander Radulov was out with a lower-body injury, days after missing 15 games with a lower-body malady. Mark Pysyk missed his fifth straight game with a lower-body injury.
That’s on top of a hobbled Roope Hintz finding his way into the lineup, and the continued absences of Tyler Seguin and Ben Bishop.
It left the Stars without two of their top penalty-killing forwards (Cogliano and Comeau) and an offensive threat and injection of energy (Radulov). Kero filled in on Saturday night.
The Stars will not always be facing the Red Wings. In fact, only four games against Detroit remain. But the team will need unsung players to step up. Injuries will be a constant during an uber-condensed finish to the season (29 games in 51 days), and Stars coach Rick Bowness knows this.
Bowness understands that the Stars will have to count on contributions every now and then from depth forwards that are solely given an opportunity because of who is not in the lineup. After wins, the Stars hand out a baseball bat to the player of the game — a symbol that the next man to the plate has to step up. The organization had T-shirts made that say “Next Man Up.”
It’s no secret that teams will have to look towards unsung players for production. The Stars also need Jamie Benn and Denis Gurianov to become consistent offensive threats, of course, but depth participation is simply part of the 2020-21 NHL season.
On Saturday night, the Stars received those contributions — style points or not, it didn’t matter.
