The steamrolling Dallas Stars will try to complete a perfect four-game homestand when they play host to the Calgary Flames on Thursday.
The Stars, who are coming off a thrilling 4-3 win over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, are on an 11-2-1 run that has them pushing for top spot in the Central Division and the Western Conference.
The most recent victory added a whole new level to the fun run, which increased their home winning streak to six games. After Dallas surrendered a two-goal third-period lead, Thomas Harley scored the game-winner with 4.8 seconds remaining.
“Over a long season, you don’t want to be doing that every night, but we did some good things to build a 3-1 lead but then made a couple mistakes and they grabbed some momentum in the third,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “Give them credit, they played hard and made us earn it.”
With 21 games remaining in the regular season, the Stars are six points back of the Western Conference-leading Winnipeg Jets and have one game in hand.
While Dallas has been lighting up the scoreboards with a variety of key players rolling on offense — for example, Wyatt Johnston has collected seven goals and five assists in a seven-game point streak and Roope Hintz scored in a three-point outing vs. New Jersey while Jason Robertson and Harley had two points apiece — the Stars are receiving contributions from unlikely sources.
Defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin scored his first goal in nearly two years on Tuesday, his sixth in 412 NHL games.
“It’s a reward for all the hard work that he’s done,” Harley said. “He plays the right way and probably deserves more goals than he gets.”
The Flames head into the final game of a six-game road trip after claiming a 6-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday to snap a three-game losing streak (0-2-1).
Calgary had a much-needed offensive explosion in Philadelphia. After scoring only four total goals in the first four games of the sojourn, the Flames netted four in the opening period against the Flyers, three in a span of 1:52.
“It’s nice to score some goals, obviously, it’s been a tough stretch,” Flames forward Morgan Frost. “Especially when you get out to a start like that, it’s huge and it kinda gives you the confidence right away. I don’t know if we’re going to be scoring that many every game, but if we can get a couple … we’ll win more games.”
Calgary, which holds the Western Conference’s second wild-card position, owns a 2-2-1 record on this trek.
The difference in the team’s morale was noticeable on Tuesday, with struggling forwards Connor Zary (twice) and Yegor Sharangovich lighting the lamp.
“No doubt about it, for guys to find the back of the net, I think it does a lot for a player’s confidence, especially when you might be squeezing (the stick) a little tighter than normal,” said Flames forward Nazem Kadri, who notched one goal and one assist in Philadelphia. “You’ve got to give us credit, we had a great first period, and that was the difference.”
