The Dallas Stars' five-game winning streak and 9-0-1 run than has seen the club surge to first place in the Pacific Division has been the product of many little -- and not-so-little -- things coming together at the right time for the team.
If the Stars get at least four of the following five factors to continue going their way, they should be in good shape to at minimum hold onto a playoff spot and possibly not relinquish their hold on the third seed in the Western Conference:
1)
Outstanding goaltending. Philadelphia goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov may be the NHL's hottest goaltender over the past couple weeks (he has three shutouts in his last four starts and was fabulous in the other game as well) but Dallas' Kari Lehtonen is a close second. After a tremendous start to the season, Lehtonen missed a month due to a severe groin pull. It took him awhile upon his return to recover the same consistency he displayed earlier. Now he's back on track.
Lehtonen played excellent hockey in February (2.10 goals against average, .920 save percentage), especially over the latter part of the month. He's been even better in his four March starts to date (1.44 GAA, .953 SV%). Meanwhile, backup Richard Backman has been used sparingly but also performed very well in victories over Chicago and Minnesota.
2)
Key players stepping up. Apart from Lehtonen, the Stars have been getting clutch performances from various combinations of Jamie Benn, Loui Eriksson, Mike Ribeiro and Michael Ryder. The returning Brenden Morrow scored the team's lone goal last game until Ryder's late-game empty netter sealed the 2-0 win over Anaheim. Steve Ott also had a strong game in his return from a one-game absence. This time of year, a team's best players need to be the ones who step to the forefront. The Stars' core group has done it.
3.
Attention to detail. The Stars have tightened things up on their breakouts and coverages in their own end of the ice. They have allowed fewer odd-man rushes than they did over the middle portion of the season. In addition, earlier in the season, the club frequently experienced penalty trouble at the worst possible times. Over the last 10 games, the Stars have been shorthanded just 31 times -- which is a manageable volume of penalties to kill. Some of it is because refs allow a little more leeway this time of year, but the Stars have also played with better discipline.
4.
Clutch special teams. Not only are the Stars taking fewer penalties, they are also doing a great job of killing the ones they do take. During the aforementioned 10-game span, the Stars have killed penalties at a phenomenal 96.8% (30 for 31) clip.
Meanwhile, while the Stars' power play numbers over that span (4-for-25, 16%) are nothing special, it seems like the ones that do get scored have come when the team has needed them the most. To further build on this, the Stars could use Alex Goligoski (1 point in his last 10 games) to get hot offensively again. Goligoski, however, is playing well overall and has logged monster ice time of late, including 30:09 in the San Jose game where Sheldon Souray went down.
5.
Preparation for tough schedule. The Stars' problems in the second half of back-to-back games this season has been well documented. When the club finally got its first win under those circumstances, it was a confidence booster that helped build the current run. Nevertheless, it bears mentioning that the Stars have had at least one off-day between games for a couple weeks now, including during their 3-0 road trip through western Canada (a trip that will be repeated later this month).
That stretch of moderate activity ends tomorrow, as the Stars start a gauntlet of three games in four nights that will see some tough travel. They are in Minnesota tomorrow, in Winnipeg on Wednesday and then at home to play Chicago on Friday. Looking ahead, the Stars will have to close out their March schedule with a brutal pair of road games in Vancouver (Friday, March 30) and San Jose on consecutive nights.
Dallas will need to put their back-to-back game woes behind them once and for all if the team is to avoid coming in like lions and going out like lambs. Things only get tougher from here. Such is the nature of the NHL.
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