Three Thoughts - Power Play Rescues Game 1
Dallas needed 3rd period heroics yet again and Edmonton wonders what happened.
Things were down bad again.
The second intermission has been a time in these playoffs for the 2025 Dallas Stars when some dark places have been explored by our imaginations. Maybe this is the time that it all unravels. Maybe this opponent has too much.
It happened against Colorado a few times—early in the series and then somehow in Game 7.
It definitely happened against Winnipeg. Several times after two periods, Dallas seemed to just not have it.
And it took just one game against Edmonton to do it all over again. But this time, it felt about as bleak as it can feel after two periods.
Edmonton was working the Stars badly. They were outplaying, outshooting, and outskating. They appeared too fast, for sure. “Too skilled” is an understatement. They ripped home three goals in the first 40 minutes, and each one was just inside the post in a spot where a goalie would have a very difficult time doing anything about it.
Perhaps the demise has finally arrived—in a similar spot as in 2023 and 2024.
But there is something about these Stars, isn’t there? They seem to own the third period and beyond. They seem to figure out a path out of despair and defeat when these playoff games are on the line.
They are now 8-0 in these playoff “close games,” and they are 7-1 at home. They seem to be outclassed in some of these contests and yet rise up and even grab regulation wins when entering the third period down multiple goals.
How is this even possible, let alone repeatable?
My friend Josh Bogorad listed out the home resume from the last month:
Think about what fans at the AAC have seen so far this postseason:
Blackwell’s OT winner
Wyatt :09 in
The Legend of Mikko in Game 7
Petrovic and the 3rd vs Winnipeg
Granlund’s hat trick
Harley’s series ender
Tonight’s five-goal third period
Just pure blissful insanity.
When you list out the seven straight home wins like that, you realize how lucky we have been to witness this all in succession. What a spring of unreal memories stacked one on top of the next.
But those can wait. The job of trying to deal with Edmonton is the clear and present danger, and this is not a one-off situation. You have to beat that wagon four times in two weeks to survive. Last night was an incredible feat, but it will not define this series, most likely. Dallas will have to be better, for sure.
And yet, that is the beauty of where they are. If the Stars play their best, you probably won’t beat them. But this isn’t that. This is the Stars not playing their best and still winning playoff games of high importance. In a weird way, that is perhaps more defining of a team that has a ceiling of “champion” possible.
Sometimes, you need to steal a game you probably didn’t fully deserve, and the Stars did it in the third period with the power play, of all things, leading the way. It was an incredible and memorable Game 1 of this best-of-seven series with Edmonton that the Stars managed to win, 6–3, after trailing 3–1 with 20 minutes to play. We don’t get many 5–0 third periods to enjoy.
These are My Three Thoughts:
There have probably been more extreme examples of flipping a script on a game than what we saw last night in the first six minutes of the 3rd period as Dallas scored three consecutive times on three consecutive power plays, but I am failing to think of one right now. It came out of nowhere and rocked Edmonton badly by demonstrating yet another example of this being a 60-minute game and no lead being safe. Dallas now believes they can rescue any game from the fire and that is perhaps the most important super power this time of year.