DALLAS -- The Dallas Stars need wins as they chase a playoff in the Western Conference. They also need to discover a second line to supplement one of the best lines in hockey.
Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the New York Islanders may have accomplished both.
The Stars bounced back from a sluggish loss in Seattle on Sunday with a dominating win over the Islanders, outshooting New York 40-21 on their way to their seventh win in the last nine games.
Marian Studenic, Tyler Seguin and Radek Faksa (shorthanded) scored for the Stars, as Jake Oettinger made 19 saves, including a sprawling one on Mat Barzal with less than three minutes remaining.
Dallas jumped back ahead of Vegas in the chase for the last Wild Card spot in the West. The Stars are one point ahead of the Golden Knights with two games in hand. As Nashville won on Tuesday, the Predators remained one point ahead of the Stars with the same amount of games played.
The boost in the standings is essential down the stretch. The second line may help, too.
On Tuesday night, the Stars unveiled a revamped look on the second line, putting Jamie Benn back with Seguin, and adding Studenic on their right wing. The line was the best one on the ice all night, and continuously tilted the ice in the Stars’ favor.
Studenic opened the scoring on Tuesday night with his first goal as a Star, depositing a Miro Heiskanen rebound past Islanders goaltender Semyon Varlamov. It was Studenic’s third career goal, and first since the Stars claimed him off waivers in February.
Islanders coach Barry Trotz challenged the goal for goaltender interference, but Benn’s contact with Varlamov was ruled to have occurred outside the crease. The goal stood, and the Stars did not score on the ensuing power play.
After Jean-Gabriel Pageau tied the game at 1 with a rush up the right wing, Seguin scored his 20th goal of the season by deflecting Joel Hanley’s shot. Studenic was instrumental in taking away Varlamov’s vision with a drive-by screen on the Hanley shot.
Brock Nelson scored his fourth goal in two games against the Stars to knot the game at 2, before Faksa’s shorthanded tally from Luke Glendening gave the Stars a 3-2 lead.
All season, the Stars have been searching for a complement to their splendid top line of Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz and Joe Pavelski. The Hintz line is one of the league’s best at controlling play and converting chances, but received little help from the rest of the Stars forward corps.
When the top line went dry, so did the Stars’ offense.
Might Benn, Seguin and Studenic be able to fix that?
Studenic has shown promise since debuting with the Stars last month, using his speed to possess pucks entering the offensive zone in addition to being a pest on the forecheck. He has been in and out of the lineup, and with a number of different linemates, but has brought the same straight-line speed. Studenic’s is not thought of as an offensive threat, and lacked finish in New Jersey, but maybe the Stars don’t need him to be the scorer with Benn and Seguin on the same line?
While it’s unlikely Benn and Seguin resemble the players they once were, they each have been productive recently. Entering Tuesday, Seguin had 28 points in his last 32 games. Benn has 23 points in his last 27 games.
Their production will be vital to helping the Stars make the playoffs and potentially pulling an upset. Tuesday was another indication that it might be counted upon.
Missing bodies: Forwards Jacob Peterson (lower-body) and Denis Gurianov (sick) missed Tuesday’s game against the Islanders, meaning Alexander Radulov and Marian Studenic re-entered the Stars lineup.
Stars coach Rick Bowness said Gurianov has “been sick for about 10 days, and he woke up today feeling worse.” Bowness said the Stars hoped Peterson’s injury was day-to-day.
Defenseman Esa Lindell missed his fourth straight game with an upper-body injury, but Bowness said Lindell skated on Tuesday. This season is the first time Lindell has missed more than two games since 2016-17.
“We’ll put him through some more paces tomorrow,” Bowness said. “He hasn’t skated in a while, so we’ll see how he is tomorrow.”
Defenseman Jani Hakanpää, who was a late scratch Sunday in Seattle after he was hit in the face with a puck during warmup, was back in the Stars lineup on Tuesday. As Hakanpää returned to the lineup, Andrej Sekera came out.
Looking for production: The Stars’ power play entered Tuesday just 1 for its last 16 in the previous six games, including an ugly 0 for 3 on Sunday in Seattle.
Bowness said the team’s mentality and work ethic needed to change on the power play.
“That’s the most important thing: Get that mentality back,” Bowness said. “Be hungry on the power play. We’re getting outworked by penalty killers. We try to outwork the opposition’s power play. When we’re effective with our penalty kill, that’s what we’re doing.
“You better understand there’s four guys that are going to try to outwork you, and you better have that mentality, you better put your work boots on. Just because you five and they’re four, doesn’t mean anything if you don’t work hard.”
With the lineup shuffling, the power play units also changed.
Joe Pavelski, Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz, Vladislav Namestnikov and Miro Heiskanen were on one unit. Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Alexander Radulov, Ryan Suter and John Klingberg were on the other unit.
It was the first time all season that Klingberg and Suter were on the same unit. Thomas Harley remained absent on the man-advantage. Namestnikov’s last power play goal was more than two years ago.
Late arrival: The Stars arrived in Dallas past midnight early Tuesday morning after mechanical and crewing issues delayed their departure from Seattle. The Stars stayed over on the West Coast on Sunday as a way to maximize the amount of sleep for players without dealing with the two-hour time difference.
