CALGARY, Alberta _ The NHL schedule is a grind, so they say. It's a cliche repeated by tired teams and bruised teams and fresh teams and unbroken teams, and it's become part of the hockey vernacular because of its propensity to explain events otherwise difficult to understand.
You won a game despite being outplayed and outshot and outchanced? It was a grind.
You survived injuries and rode unsung heroes to victory? It was a grind.
You went into an opposing arena, frustrated the home team and yanked two points away? It was a grind.
In beating the Flames 4-3 in overtime on Wednesday night in Calgary, the Stars finally conquered perhaps the biggest grind of the hockey season: the back-to-back. It was the first in Jim Montgomery's brief tenure as Stars head coach that his team won on the second night of a back-to-back, having failed before in New Jersey, New York and Colorado.
Tyler Seguin scored the game-winner 24 seconds into overtime, and it survived a review for goaltender interference by Jamie Benn.
"A good feeling that you get results for how we play," Seguin said. "Last night, we grind it out and the Dallas Stars were in overtime in a 0-0 game. You don't see that too much a few years ago. Tonight, we found a way to win again, so we got to keep grinding those out on the road. We're finding something. We have a belief here on the road now."
Jason Spezza scored 41 seconds into the game, and Benn's second-period power play goal snapped a slump for the Dallas power play. The Stars successfully killed four penalties, including three nearly consecutive ones in the first period. And Anton Khudobin made 30 saves in his fifth straight start.
Gavin Bayreuther tied the game with about seven minutes remaining in the third, thwarting a late rally by the Flames.
"It wasn't our best but we found a way to get two big points on a back-to-back in a tough building on a good team," Benn said.
Montgomery added: "I thought that our effort was great. I thought our execution was poor. It was a little bit of a Chinese fire drill at times. But the way the guys dug in and kept battling was pretty impressive."
The Flames scored two goals in 70 seconds to erase a one-goal deficit in the third period. Johnny Gaudreau capitalized on Benn's second penalty of the third period, whipping a shot to the top corner on the power play. Mark Giordano followed by wristing a shot past Khudobin.
The Stars entered Wednesday night with losses in four of their last five games. Colorado tore out their hearts with a late surge Saturday night in Denver to beat the Stars. Edmonton stole a point Tuesday night with an overtime victory. Last week, they looked sleepy in losses to the Rangers and Penguins.
The Stars offense was missing, with four total goals in their last four losses. The power play hadn't clicked since the first week of the season. Of course, the Stars are also missing four NHL defensemen due to injuries.
(Montgomery did not have any updates on John Klingberg, Connor Carrick and Marc Methot before the game, and each is likely still out long-term with various ailments.)
So a victory on the tail end was just what the Stars needed.
Before the game, Montgomery felt poised about his team's chances on the second half of the back-to-back. He'd spread minutes around enough the previous night in Edmonton so that none of his forwards were tied. Tyler Seguin led the bunch with 20:06 against the Oilers, but he was the only one who eclipsed 20 minutes. Montgomery said he learned from the first back-to-back of the season, when he rode his top line for 25 minutes in Ottawa before the Stars were shut out by the Devils.
"I feel confident about our game plans on back-to-backs now, and I really feel confident about our minutes played the night before," Montgomery said. "Seggy was the only one who touched 20 minutes, and he barely touched it. I think our lowest forward might have been Spezza at like (10:37). It's a pretty good balance with our forward unit."
Montgomery also felt good about his goaltender.
For the second time in the last week, Khudobin started both ends of a back-to-back. He played against the Senators and the Avalanche over the weekend. He absorbed every minute of the overtime loss in Edmonton on Tuesday. So instead of trusting recent AHL recall Landon Bow in net, Montogmery went to Khudobin for the fifth time in a row.
"He's been playing really well and he's competing hard," Montgomery said. "We feel that the team really digs in when he's in net because he's digging in."
It hasn't been uncommon for Montgomery, who also started Ben Bishop back-to-back games in New York.
The formula hadn't worked before for the Stars. But in a season in which they'll have to grind through stretches _ especially in the travel-rich Western Conference _ Wednesday was a good place to start.
