DALLAS _ The Jim Montgomery Era, young though it is, began smoothly enough through the season's first three games, but an early 3-0 deficit against Anaheim in Game No. 4 on Saturday might have given fans cause for concern.
Briefly. A flicker of concern, at most.
Before the sellout crowd of 18,532 could ponder their team's three-goal, second-period deficit, the Stars electrified American Airlines Center by scoring four goals in a Duck-dazing 6:32 span en route to a 5-3 victory.
"That was a character win," Montgomery said. "It shows how hard our guys work for each other."
The Stars (3-1) opened the season with a four-game homestand, and now they go on the road to play two straight, four of the next seven and eight of the next 11.
They learned a lot about themselves and first-year coach Montgomery: Namely, that this team has firepower and a system that takes advantage of that power.
In the season-opening win over Arizona, Dallas scored all three of its goals in a 96-second span. During Saturday's 6:32, four-goal blitzkrieg, the second and third goals came nine seconds apart.
Dallas outshot Anaheim 30-4 during the second period alone. That's not a misprint. The 26-shot differential was the most by a Stars team since the franchise moved here in 1993, eclipsing the 25 that was done on two occasions, most recently on March 16, 1997 against Pittsburgh at Reunion Arena.
"It's tough, you know?" said Stars wing Alexander Radulov. "It's always hard to fall behind 3-0, but tonight the Hockey gods were on our side."
During the three days that elapsed after Tuesday's 7-4 home loss to Toronto, Montgomery and his staff pondered ways to inject firepower into the Stars' second, third and fourth lines.
They inserted wing Jason Dickinson, who didn't play against Toronto, into the third line with Tyler Pitlick and center Radek Faksa. Devin Shore was moved from third-line wing to fourth-line center, flanked by Blake Comeau and Mattias Janmark.
Montgomery chose to leave the top line of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Radulov intact, reasoning that the trio had played well together, combining for nine of the team's 12 goals.
But after watching his team and second-team goalie Anton Khudobin, who made his first start Saturday, fall behind 2-0 after the first period, Montgomery shuffled all four lines.
