CHICAGO -- Pete DeBoer wasn’t happy with how Saturday went but the Dallas Stars coach wasn’t going to dwell on it.
The Stars had to turn the page, get past their 3-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center because they had to quickly focus on what DeBoer said was, “the biggest game of the year for us,” when they play the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena on Sunday (10 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN).
“We don’t have another option, right?” DeBoer said. “We play in 24 hours here and it is the biggest game of the year here, in Colorado. I know we’ll rebound. We’ve been a good rebound team all year in these types of situations. Yeah, we’ll move on and get ready for a big one tomorrow.”
The Stars are trying to win the Central Division for the first time since 2015-16. They have a three-point lead over the Avalanche, who have won their three previous meetings this season, most recently a 5-1 win on Feb. 27.
“That’s why we definitely wanted to get this one (against Chicago), knowing we could’ve put (the Avalanche) into a little bit of a hole, knowing tomorrow is coming,” Stars forward Joe Pavelski said.
Sure, a win against the Blackhawks would’ve given the Stars a five-point lead over the Avalanche but there’s another way to look at it: the Stars’ record eight-game winning streak, which ended on Saturday, has given them breathing room they didn’t have a few weeks ago.
On March 16, when their streak began with a 4-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings, the Stars were third in the Central, tied in points with the Avalanche and Winnipeg Jets, but each had a regulation-win tiebreaker over the Stars.
To keep or add to their Central lead, the Stars will have to be back at their best against the Avalanche. They’ll have to try and thwart center Nathan MacKinnon, who has had at least one point in 36 of the Avalanche’s 37 home games this season.
“I mean, it’s a really good team, a lot of skill and speed,” Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen said. “I think we have to try to stay with the puck and play a lot in their zone and try to slow them down a little bit. It’s a skilled group with a lot of speed, for sure.”
Part of trying to shut down the Avalanche falls on goaltender Jake Oettinger, who has been on a roll as of late and is expected to start in Colorado. The 25-year-old has won his past six starts, allowing two goals or fewer in each.
He has a shutout in two straight games, the ninth different goalie in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history to record consecutive shutouts and the first since Ben Bishop had three in a row from March 5-12, 2019.
Oettinger is now looking like the Oettinger of all of last season, when he was 37-11-11 with a 2.37 goals-against average, .919 save percentage and five shutouts in 62 games (61 starts).
“That is what he looks like,” DeBoer said. “We saw that early in the year; he had a great start the first 10-15 games. I don’t think his season was poor, but this is the level we expect him to be at and frankly the level we need him to play at if we’re going to make any noise in the playoffs.”
Dallas has a chance to win the Presidents’ Trophy, awarded to the team that finishes with the most points. The Stars won it in 1997-98 and 1998-99, winning the Stanley Cup in 1999. But first and foremost is first in the division and getting that home-ice advantage that, for DeBoer, counts at the most critical time.
“I’ve been in a lot of Game 7s,” said DeBoer, whose 7-0 record in Game 7s is the best in NHL history (minimum five games). “Home ice for me isn’t as important in the NHL playoffs until it gets to a Game 7, then I think it becomes an important part. You want to be in that situation and have that opportunity as many times as you can to play that game at home.”
The Stars were disappointed to come away with nothing in Chicago, but they’re still in a good spot. Now, their biggest test awaits.
“It’s going to be a good game. We’ll be ready for it, and we’ll go from there,” Pavelski said. “Good team, obviously, and it’ll be a good test.”
