The Stars have been an extremely resilient team all season. It was not surprising, therefore, that they bounced back from Wednesday's loss with a victory over the Predators in the final game before Christmas.
What was a little surprising about last night's 6-3 outcome was that the Stars are a club that usually scratches out its victories rather than winning by virtue of a scoring bonanza. But the Stars worked hard for their goals, scoring some gritty deflection goals and going to the net. That eventually forced the Predators to take more risks and created more skating room for Dallas.
Given the Stars' generally modest offensive output, it was nice to see six different Stars players tally goals on this night. Dallas got one goal apiece from each member of the Jamie Benn line (Loui Eriksson quickly followed Vernon Fiddler's opening goal midway through the first period and later added a pair of assists, while Michael Ryder's empty netter extended his goal-scoring streak to four games). They also got a pair of goals from the Mike Ribeiro line and one from Fiddler's third line. All good stuff for the Stars.
Unfortunately, the win did not come without a cost. Already playing without top defenseman Stephane Robidas, the Stars lost Sheldon Souray to a foot injury early in the second period and had to get by with the other five defensemen.
The Stars will take the next two days off for Christmas. They are back in action on Boxing Day, traveling to St. Louis for a road tilt before returning home to the American Airlines Center for a three-game homestand that will take the club through New Years.
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