If you’ve watched the Dallas Stars during the Stanley Cup playoffs, you might have forgotten that Matt Duchene was even on the team.
Yet, when more was needed of the 30-goal producer during the regular season, Duchene finally came through.
The hot-and-cold forward struck for his first goal of the playoffs, and it was the game-winner in a five-goal third-period onslaught that turned a two-goal deficit into a 6-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday.
Duchene gave the Stars a 4-3 advantage at 5:58 on the man advantage, for the third power-play goal of the period that put Dallas ahead for good. The Stars lead 1-0 in the best-of-7 series, with Game 2 coming Friday.
Silent Nights
Duchene put up 82 regular-season points but has just five assists in the playoffs. Although he picked up the primary helper on Mikko Rantanen’s game-winning goal in Game 7 against the Avalanche, Duchene is -11 — the second-worst rating of any Dallas player or any player in the postseason behind teammate Wyatt Johnston.
Still, Duchene’s fancy stats show he has been building toward this moment, even if it came on the power play. The Stars have been outscored 11-2 at Even strength with him on the ice, plus a pair of short-handed goals against, but Duchene has the fifth-best Corsi-For percentage (51) on the roster at 5-on-5 and has a 53.8 Expected Goals percentage at 5-on-5.
“He’s been around [the net], quite a bit,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said after the game. “It just hasn’t gone in for him.”
But with the score tied at 3 and Dallas again on the power play, Duchene nearly blew an empty net when he hit teammate Roope Hintz with his initial shot. But his rebound found the back of the net.
“The first one that hit [Hintz], I’m like ‘this was par for the course this postseason for me.’ If there’s something that could go wrong it did,” Duchene said. “But then it comes back and goes in, and, I couldn’t believe I still had room. So, kind of a funny one. But yeah it feels good.
“Hopefully, there’s more of that to come and less of hitting my own teammate in the [butt].”
The goal also set off elation on the Dallas bench, which has been rooting for Duchene to get hot.
Trusting The Process
Duchene may have struggled, but he said he has not wavered from his process and preparation. He credited that helping him rise to the occasion Wednesday.
“I’ve talked about my process, personally, focusing on that, personally,” Duchene said. “Things like [the goal] come when you stick to it. If you roll out your ‘A’ game individually, and as a team, more often than not, you’re going to have results. You’ve just got to stick with it.”
DeBoer credited Duchene’s resolve and game and also was hopeful his snakebitten second-line center would get going.
“We’re all happy for him,” DeBoer said. “You can say whatever you want, but that weighs on a guy like that, particularly a scorer. Great for him to get one. It was due.
“Hopefully the floodgates will open now.”
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