Stars-Devils thoughts

That was a good win for the Stars. Although they haven’t been able to string wins together, they have been pretty good at bouncing back from losses. They did again tonight. The Stars are now 5-0-1 in games following regulation losses. In other words, they have yet to lose two in a row in regulation. They are resilient and they showed some good resiliency in this game.

That first goal by Brian Rolston 55 seconds could be big trouble against a team like New Jersey, but the Stars bounced back quickly thanks to Warren Peters going to the net and getting his stick on a Stephane Robidas shot to tie the game. After New Jersey tied the game in the third, rallying from a 3-1 deficit, the Stars bounced back again. This time with some good pressure by the top line and then Brad Richards making a spectacular pass to Tom Wandell, who went to the net and scored off the rebound of his own shot.

They did a nice job of creating some quality chances, including some nice ones on their two power play goals in the first period. They chased Yann Danis from the game after the first period, but I don’t think Danis was that bad. He had little chance on the Stars’ chances, which were good ones. Nice move by Jacques Lemaire to bring in Martin Brodeur. He made some big saves and that helped the Devils turn things around and tie the game, but the Stars finally cracked his armor and got the two points.

There were some excellent individual performances. Robidas was big offensively with two goals and two assists, but he was great at the other end too. He did a nice job against Zach Parise, a talented player who had been on a roll offensively.

Richards was outstanding, picking up four points - all assists - in the game. He was a pretty determined player on that shift that resulted in Wandell’s game-winning goal and the shift where Robidas scored his second goal to extend the lead to 5-3.

Mike Ribeiro had a good game as well, scoring a power play goal and making a slick pass to set up Robidas’ first goal, which came on the power play.

Mike Modano had his points streak stopped, but he played another solid game and was dominant in the faceoff circle, winning 10 of 15.

Tom Wandell was a nice fit on the left wing with Richards and Loui Eriksson and scored a big goal.

I thought Peters had a solid game. He got a big goal, won five of seven faceoffs and had four hits. That preseason injury sidetracked Peters but he got up to speed with the Texas Stars and can be a good player to have around when the Dallas Stars need him in the NHL. He’s a good fourth line type guy.

Now that they’ve bounced back and won a game the next step is to follow it up with a win. Carolina comes to town next and despite their lackluster record the Hurricanes have played well lately. They had a big comeback win the other night over Toronto and beat Tampa Bay Saturday night. They are missing Cam Ward and Eric Staal, but they still have some pretty good players in their lineup. There are no easy games in the NHL and this one won’t be any different. 

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