The Stars head to Buffalo on Thursday night looking to carry over the kind of response that changed the mood in a hurry back home.
Dallas opened the season with a rough stretch, but Monday’s 5-0 win over San Jose gave the group something it badly needed: goals from five different players, a sharper attack, and a cleaner overall effort. Now the challenge is to make that performance travel to KeyBank Center, where the Stars will face the Sabres for the first time this season at 6:00 p.m. on Prime Video.
This is the first of two meetings between the teams, with the rematch set for Nov. 14 in Dallas. It’s also Dallas’ first game against an Eastern Conference opponent this season. The Stars enter at 1-2-0 overall and 0-1-0 on the road, while Buffalo is 2-1-0 and 2-0-0 at home.
There’s some history here, and it tilts in Dallas’ favor lately. The Stars have picked up points in eight of their last 10 games against Buffalo, going 7-2-1 since Jan. 20, 2022, and they’ve won four of their last five in Buffalo. Overall, Dallas is 58-58-20 all-time against the Sabres, including a 21-34-12 mark on the road.
Mikko Rantanen has been a problem for Buffalo for a while. He’s posted 23 points in 18 career games against the Sabres, including eight points in his last six matchups. Jason Robertson has also been productive in the series, with 12 points in 10 career games and four points in his last three against Buffalo.
Jamie Benn is another player worth watching. He had a goal and an assist in Monday’s win over the Sharks, and his goal was the 23rd of his career against San Jose, the second-most of any active skater behind Corey Perry.
Benn enters Thursday with 994 career points, leaving him six shy of 1,000. If he gets there, he’d become the second player in franchise history to reach the mark with the team, the 13th active skater to do it, and the second fifth-round pick in NHL history to hit 1,000 career points, joining Alexander Mogilny.
Benn has also been strong against Buffalo over the years, with 23 points in 27 games and a plus-10 rating. Two of his 12 goals against the Sabres have been game-winners.
On the other side, Owen Power is off to a strong start for Buffalo. The defenseman scored the overtime winner against Minnesota on Tuesday for his first goal of the season and has a point in each of the Sabres’ first three games.
That gives him a team-high five points through three games, and his assist Tuesday was his fourth of the season. According to NHL Stats, he became the eighth defenseman in Sabres history to record an assist in the team’s first three games of a season.
Power has also piled up 28 goals and 145 points in his career, leading all defensemen drafted in 2021 in both categories. Against Dallas, he has eight points in eight games, including three points in his last two.
Dallas is trying to keep the momentum rolling after what coach Glen Gulutzan called a simple formula against San Jose. After the team was booed on the power play, Benn joked that it helped.
“I heard the boo birds on the power play. It was awesome,” Benn said with a smile.
“Our fans are passionate, that’s why they’re the best. They’ve watched a lot of hockey over the last few years, so they can have their opinions.”
The Stars know the first two games were not good enough. They scored just one goal and went 0-for-5 on the power play in that stretch, then followed with five goals Monday as the puck started finding more open ice and more bodies got to the net.
“For all of our guys, Miro, Robo, Rants, Benny…it feels good to get a goal or a couple of assists,” coach Glen Gulutzan said. “It feels good, it helps. I think down the line, you can start feeling good about your game and that will help us.”
Robertson said the group understands what has to happen next.
“We’ve been talking through it,” said Robertson. “Everyone in the room knows what we need to do.”
Gulutzan said the goal is to keep the good parts and sharpen the rest.
“You want to build off of it, for sure,” Gulutzan said. “We want to clean up some things and keep pushing. We don’t have to sacrifice any defense to get more offense, so we need to just clean up the things we can clean up.”
Miro Heiskanen, who has two goals, said the early scoring helps the team settle in.
“It gives us confidence,” Heiskanen said. “You start to build on that and get better each game.”
Dallas will have to do it without Joel Kiviranta, who blocked a shot Monday and left with a lower-body injury. He will not travel on the two-game road trip and could miss about a week.
Gulutzan said, “I would hope it’s only a week.” Colin Blackwell is expected to come in, and with the cap tight and Matt Duchene injured, the Stars are carrying only one extra skater in defenseman Kyle Capobianco.
One number stands out for both teams: zero. Neither club has scored a power play goal yet, with Dallas 0-for-8 and Buffalo 0-for-10.
The Stars also rank third in faceoff winning percentage at 55.1 percent, with Arttu Hyry at 73.1 percent and Justin Hryckowian at 77.8 percent.
And after Monday’s win, Gulutzan summed up the approach the Stars want to keep bringing.
“Again, it’s really a simple recipe. I think I say to our guys all of the time it’s the best league in the world but it’s really the simplest league in the world.
We’re playing a young team and a young team that’s on the rise. One way to slow them down is to grind and play in their zone and force them to defend.
That slows them down and I thought our guys did a good job of that today.”
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