DALLA _ The 2016-17 Stars are what they are right now.
Inconsistent, frustrating, exasperating, entertaining.
Even though they are hobbled by injuries and illness to key players, the Stars are still capable of the kind of offensive outburst that led them to the NHL lead in goal-scoring last season and their first division championship in a decade. And yet, those flashes only last for moments.
Dallas scored three first period goals _ including two on the power play _ and then held on to take a 3-2 win over Colorado on Thursday at American Airlines Center.
It was a huge win for a Stars team still trying to find its way. Cody Eakin played his first game of the season and went 15-of-23 in the faceoff circle. Patrick Eaves ran his goal-scoring streak to a career-best four games and also lifted his goal total to a team-best eight. And Kari Lehtonen came out of nowhere to put on his best performance of the season with 34 saves.
And when we say nowhere, that's sort of how the Lehtonen start occurred.
Stars coach Lindy Ruff decided to shake things up Thursday morning, so he allowed players to stay away from the rink and also postponed media availability to before the game. So the choice of Lehtonen when Antti Niemi was coming off a 2-1 OT loss seemed odd.
Still, Ruff played the hunch and it paid off. Lehtonen was left to pretty much fend for himself in the second half of the game and he foiled Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon on five different chances. MacKinnon had a goal and an assist and almost tied the game in the third period when he had a rebound chance on the doorstep. However, Lehtonen stuck out the glove and robbed MacKinnon, pushing the Stars to 7-6-5 (19 points) and dropping the Avalanche to 7-9-0 (14 points). That's huge because Dallas and Colorado are both battling for points in the Central Division, but it's also huge because the Avalanche have had the Stars' number in recent seasons.
Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov had won 11 straight against Dallas before suffering this defeat, the longest active stretch for any goalie against an opponent in the NHL. And while it looked like Varlamov might watch the end of this one from the bench after Johnny Oduya, Patrick Eaves and Brett Ritchie scored in the first period, the veteran goalie bounced back and his teammates started to dominate.
Led by MacKinnon and Andreas Martinsen, Colorado tilted the rink and started chucking pucks at Lehtonen. Colorado fired 16 shots on goal in the second period and 14 in the third, and tallied goals by MacKinnon _ short-handed _ and by Mikhail Grigorenko on a tip of a MacKinnon shot.
It appeared the Stars were in for another possible overtime game, but Lehtonen held everything out and Dallas was able to breathe for a second after the game. Yes, the concerns about short-handed goals will be talked about Friday (Dallas leads the league with four SHGA). Yes, they will talk about sitting on a lead and John Klingberg's continued problems with puck control.
But they can also talk about the return to health of Eakin and the possible return of Patrick Sharp on Saturday, in hopes that maybe the 2016-17 edition of this team can start looking a little more like last year's group.
