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Stars’ aggressive hockey leading to lopsided wins, big stats and scorching start

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EDMONTON, Alberta — If you’ve watched the Stars this season, odds are you’ve seen them leading — a lot.

After Saturday’s 6-2 blowout win over the Oilers, the Stars helped build their case as the league’s frontrunners just 12 games in.

They lead games more often than any other team in the NHL, their 36:46 per game ahead is almost six minutes more than second-place Boston. Likewise, the Stars spend just 5:58 per game trailing, more than three minutes fewer than second-place Vegas. In the 12 games for Dallas, it has scored first a league-high 10 times.

Under new coach Pete DeBoer, the Stars have hardly chased games, and have instead dictated almost every contest.

“I think part of it is the way we play,” said Stars captain Jamie Benn, who had a hat trick on Saturday afternoon. “We’re confident, we play aggressive and I think it’s been beneficial.”

Here are some more tidbits on the Stars’ ability to play with a lead:

— The Stars are the only team in the league that spends more time per game shorthanded (7:13) than trailing (5:58).

— The Stars have only trailed in five of their 12 games. The sole game in which the Stars never led at any point was Oct. 25 in Boston.

— Dallas has led after the first period eight times, the second-most in the NHL behind Boston’s nine. No team has led more than the Stars after two periods (eight times), and Dallas in undefeated when entering the third period with a lead.

— They have spent just 37:14 of each game with the score within one goal, the fourth-fewest amount in the league. Last year, when the Stars had 21 games go to overtime, they averaged 45:03 per game within on goal, the third-most in the NHL.

— The Stars have scored 16 goals at 5 on 5 when leading, the most in the NHL. Overall, they are outscoring teams 16-8 at 5 on 5 when leading.

“Last year, obviously, and the year before, we were in a lot of one-goal games,” Stars forward Jason Robertson said. “So we get up by a couple, it’s playing with the same pace and limiting their chances and still trying to go get the other one. We did that tonight, we did that the other night. It’s been great so far.”

Under previous coach Rick Bowness, the Stars had issues holding on to leads, particularly in the third period. As Dallas adjusted their deployment (more ice time for defensively-minded players) and packed it in, it allowed teams to creep back into games. An already conservative approach became an ultra-risk-averse one when the Stars had a lead.

That appears to be a thing of the past.

“We try to play the same way all the time,” Benn said. “If we’re up a couple goals or down one or two, play aggressive hockey, fast hockey. Right now, we’re playing with a lot of leads and playing the right way with them.”

The immediate payoff for leading so many games, and doing it so often is obvious: The Stars win games.

It’s no surprise that the recent Stanley Cup winners have been at the top of the league in amount of time with a lead. Colorado (25:60) was second last year, Tampa Bay was sixth (23:48) in 2021 and third (25:18) in 2019-20. St. Louis was fourth (23:30) in 2018-19. You get the idea.

“We had a pretty good camp of working on what we need to work on,” Stars forward Joe Pavelski said. “Every game, if the commitment level is there, we have an understanding of what to do.”

The long-term benefit of leading so many games is that DeBoer has had the option of distributing ice time. Instead of chasing leads and riding his top line and Miro Heiskanen, the Stars coaching staff has reined in minutes on their top players.

Robertson leads all Stars forwards with 13:22 of ice time at 5 on 5 per game, which ranks 90th among NHL forwards. Ryan Suter leads the Dallas defensemen at 16:55, which is 58th among NHL blue liners.

“I think every week, we take another step,” DeBoer said. “Every week, we learn a little bit more about what’s working for us and how we want to play.”

— The Stars did not practice Sunday, and traveled from Edmonton to Winnipeg.

On Twitter: @MDeFranks

Find more Stars coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.





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