Heika’s Take: Stars put forth strong effort, come up short in Global Series finale

The Stars were better on Saturday in Game 2 of the Global Series in Tampere, Finland, but still lost a 4-2 game to the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Dallas controlled the puck better (winning 54 percent of the faceoffs and earning a 61-38 advantage in shots attempts), was more physical (winning the hits battle, 26-22, against one of the NHL’s hitting leaders) and received a fantastic game from Matt Duchene (goal and assist to give him 15 points in 11 games). But Florida came up with the big plays at the right times, and earned a sweep in the two-game set.

The Panthers move to 9-3-1 on the season, while the Stars fall to 7-4-0.

“It’s a good lesson for us this weekend, playing that team and seeing what you have to do to win,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “Those are playoff-type goals. I think they had four tips [in the two games] and a couple of faceoff goals. Those are the details that decide games come playoff time. There’s not a lot of room, not a lot of space.

“They were better in those areas,” he added. “It’s a great lesson for our group.”

The Stars have had a challenging start to the season. DeBoer missed training camp while recovering from an appendectomy and both Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston were recovering from injuries and missed out on valuable preparation time. Then, the trip to Finland caused a compressed schedule with some tough travel. And then they flew overseas and battled travel delays just to be able to play back-to-back games Friday and Saturday against Florida.

The Stars had a rough outing Friday in a 6-4 loss, but bounced back in a strong way on Saturday. Dallas started on time, worked hard, and rebounded when Florida took a 2-0 lead. Evgenii Dadonov scored on the power play while filling in for injured Tyler Seguin. Then Duchene added a great goal 34 seconds later to tie the game and set up a great third period for the fans.

Florida came up with the big play as Tomáš Nosek won a faceoff back to A.J. Green and he beat Casey DeSmith with a nice shot for the eventual game-winner. The Panthers added an empty-net goal to make a strong statement against a Dallas team that has been among the best in the Western Conference for the past three seasons.

“We went up 2-0 and then got a pushback from a pretty good team,” said Green. “In those moments, you need to collectively come around together, dig deep and work for each other. We came back after the second period and had a mindset of stick to your game, stick to the things you do and play as if it’s 0-0, which it kind of was.”

Duchene, who was the team’s best player in both games, said that’s the lesson from Saturday.

“It was more like a playoff game, the intensity was high from the start,” Duchene said of the Stars’ mission to improve after Friday’s performance. “A nice faceoff [win] for them and a good shot, and that’s the difference. It sucks to drop two here, but we’ll get on the plane and be motivated to get back to North America and get going again.”

Dallas plays at home against Chicago on Thursday and will then go on the road against Winnipeg and Pittsburgh after that. The Jets are leading the Central Division, and the pace for the top spot in the division has been red-hot. Bottom line, the team that won the Central last season wants to make sure it doesn’t fall behind.

“It’s critical for experience and also humbling in that we know we have a lot of improvement that we have to make in some of those hard areas – and getting to those hard areas of the ice and defending those hard areas of the ice,” DeBoer said.

While Duchene added, “When we’re on it and we’re sharp in our details and our compete, we’re a hell of a team. When we’re missing one of them, we’re a good team not a great team. That’s I think the lesson to take away.”

The Stars faced a similar challenge last week when they had a disappointing game at Buffalo and then came back and played their best game of the season at Boston. The plan will be the same going forward.

The hope is that part of the building blocks needed to make this a team that can compete for the division title and more were forged in Finland. The team bonded with Miro Heiskanen, Roope Hintz and Esa Lindell, and witnessed just what it means to grow up in Finland. The two national anthems were played by a violinist before Saturday’s game, and the sold out crowd at Nokia Arena sang along. It was touching. What’s more, the three players met Finnish President Alexander Stubb after the game.

“It gave me chills for sure,” Heiskanen said of the anthem. “It’s always special to play in Finland.”

And that goes for everyone.

“I would like to say kiitos to the people of Finland for their hospitality,” DeBoer said. “I’m going to try to forget as quickly as possible the two hockey games, but I’ve got some lifetime memories of how we were treated here and some of the experiences we had as a group. It’s a beautiful country with beautiful people.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @MikeHeika.