Heika’s Take: Robertson's late game heroics come up big as Stars post 3-2 win over Blues

The Stars needed that one.

Locked into a month where they are grinding for every point and deadlocked with a struggling St. Louis Blues with overtime looking like a foregone conclusion, Jason Robertson came up with a fantastic goal with a minute left in regulation to pave the way to a 3-2 victory at American Airlines Center. The win pushed Dallas to 29-14-9, tied for second place in the Central Division with Minnesota.

“The past couple of weeks, we haven't been able to just get one at the end of games or just find a way to win close games,” said Robertson, who was able to elevate a tight shot over Blues goalie Jordan Binnington off an offensive zone faceoff. “So, that feels good.”

The goal was the 30th of the season for Robertson and was a great example of how hard the team is working right now to find goals. Dallas lost a 1-0 contest in Columbus on Thursday and was only able to score two goals on the power play on Friday until Robertson broke through at 5-on-5.

“It was big,” said Stars captain Jamie Benn. “Every point right now is huge and it's nice to find a way there.”

The Stars did a lot of things right on Friday, including drawing five power plays and cashing in on two – one by Wyatt Johnston and one by Matt Duchene. Still, the Blues had a 22-19 advantage in shots on goal and a 45-43 edge in shot attempts. Jake Oettinger had to be sharp in goal, as Dallas clearly was losing steam as the game went on.

Mikko Rantanen returned from missing two games with flu and looked low on energy at times, while the lads in Victory Green looked like a team that was playing its third game in four nights that included travel.

“You can see us getting tired there towards the end, especially in the third,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “I thought we started good, but we were a little flat [near the end].”

That’s why the Robertson goal was so impressive. The 26-year-old forward now sits seventh in franchise history in game-winning goals at 36 and has done that in just 426 career games. It was the kind of creative shot we have seen from Robertson on many occasions.

“Just great hands,” Gulutzan said. “He didn't have much space. It's a major goal. We were just talking about coming off Columbus, and you just need to find one. It's not always how many you score, it's when you score. That was a big goal for us from him tonight.”

Dallas has been in a bit of a slump and is 4-9 in games that have gone past regulation – including losing four in a row – so that wasn’t the most desirable of propositions. But with the Robertson goal, the team can now hunker down for the winter storm that is approaching DFW and reload a little bit. Defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin left the game with a lower body injury and his status is up in the air, but the Stars don’t play again until they start a three-game road trip in St. Louis on Tuesday. By that time, Rantanen will hopefully be better as well.

“Rants has been sick for four days, and I give him a lot of credit,” Gulutzan said. “He’s down weight, he didn’t feel great this morning, and I didn’t think he was playing. But he came and said, ‘I’m going to play.’”

Rantanen logged 22:28, including almost seven minutes on the power play. Miro Heiskanen and Thomas Harley also logged big minute games, and Robertson (goal and assist), Johnston (goal and assist) and Roope Hintz (two assists) each logged multi-point games. The Stars continue to be led by their top scorers, but they also are getting key contributions from depth lines and depth defensemen.

“They bring a lot of energy and they’re fun to play with,” Benn said of a bottom six that includes Mavrik Bourque, Justin Hryckowian, Radek Faksa, Colin Blackwell and Oskar Bäck. “We’re all just trying to set each other up. If one line has a good shift, we want to stack it up and just keep stacking shift after shift.”

And while it hasn’t always been easy to stack these good things in January, on this night there was a feeling of peace.

“I thought we got rewarded tonight and it was a great goal by Robertson at the end,” said Duchene. “We got a nice little bounce there and got a guy into a good spot. You don’t really score many like that, so it was nice to see that one go for us. We could’ve been a little crisper, but I think we deserved the game we got.”

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 @MikeHeika.