Dallas Stars game notes: Johnston’s cold as ice & an ugly game still ends with two points in OT win vs Flames

The Dallas Stars needed a rally to get two points in a 4-3 comeback overtime win against the Calgary Flames at American Airlines Center on Tuesday.

Stars lines

11/7

• Robertson – Johnston – Rantanen
• Benn – Duchene – Blackwell
• Bäck – Hryckowian – Bourque
• Erne – Hyry

• Lindell – Heiskanen
• Harley – Lundkvist
• Bichsel – Myers  
• Lyubushkin

• Oettinger
• DeSmith

Scratches: Petrovic, Capobianco, Hughes, Bunting (injured), Steel (injured), Bastian (injured), Hintz (injured), Faksa (IR), Seguin (SELTIR)

Top story

DLLS meetups!

I know this isn’t about the game on the ice, but I wanted to bring it up because it is really special to me and all of us at DLLS.

Pretty much since we started this funky podcast/TV show thing, we have had the best community and support. I have gotten to head down to the 100’s or 300’s to meet or meet up with countless DieHards and Stars fans. We have had some amazing events at COSM, the takeover at the AAC and studio audience, a watch party, and more. We have amazing chats and engagement on all of our shows and social media.

And it means so much to us.

It’s already very cool that y’all want to meet and hang out with us. But the fact that DieHards now meet up, go to games together, have become friends, and rattle off a ridiculous stream of chatter on the Discord is truly amazing. We are so proud to be able to bring all of you together and are just so dang grateful for all the love and support.

I mean, heck, I need longer arms to fit all the amazing bracelets I have been gifted! Or at least some better coordination to avoid exploding them into a million pieces all over my car.

And tonight, Owen and I got to hang with some of our amazing DieHards between periods, and even missed the opening goal of the game while we tried to scramble back to the press box.

Worth it!

Let’s keep it rolling and only build this thing bigger and better.

Live game notebook

Period 1

• 11/7 off to a hot start… Everybody is playing with everybody.
• Matt Duchene missed a wide-open net standing alone in the slot on the power play.
• Now, Jason Robertson drilled the post, also standing alone in the slot on the power play. Bold strategy by Calgary’s penalty kill.
• And now, Thomas Harley had his chance to walk straight down the slot, but missed the net.
• Harley threw a hospital pass to the wing just as the Calgary skater came out of the box. Dangerous play.
• On the Stars second power play, Miro Heiskanen had time to shoot and rang it off the elbow of the post and crossbar on the near side.
• It is quite sleepy and empty inside the AAC.
• Shots were only 4-2 Calgary after one period, but Dallas did hit two pipes and had a few great chances from the slot.

Stars 0, Flames 0

Period 2

• Owen and I got to meet up with some amazing DLLS DieHards between periods, including Alistair, all the way from the UK! But… We missed the first goal lol.
• Do I ever love that QueBäck line? After Harley jumped up with the puck to lead the rush from the Dallas end, he ripped a wrister way wide of the net through a screen. But the puck bounced perfectly off the wall and lay at the side of the net for Justin Hryckowian to bank it off Devin Cooley and in.

Ritzy continues his excellent Rookie Season. pic.twitter.com/niVQolxiQz

— DLLS Stars (@DLLS_Stars) April 8, 2026

• Calgary answers, though, as Harley and Ilya Lyubushkin got caught on a turnover. Harley made a nice play to wait and time his stick lift perfectly, but he and Lyubushkin both went to the same forward, who still managed to poke a shot on Jake Oettinger. The rebound went right to Joel Farabee on the backhand.

1-1. Joel Farabee finds a rebound for Calgary. pic.twitter.com/2ugjBRqY96

— Robert Tiffin (@RobertTiffin) April 8, 2026

• I’ve got to say, Dallas should be putting far more pressure on Calgary. The Flames are not only playing free and easy, but they are sending two or three skaters in full attack mode to the puck, no matter where it is.
• Again, Calgary has no interest in defending. Yet, the Stars are still sitting at eight shots.
• Calgary sent two to Colin Blackwell up by his own bench at the blue line. Blackwell did a nice job slipping the pass through, but nothing came of it.
• On the other end, Robertson gets on the wrong side of the puck at the blue line. Adam Klapka barely kept the puck in, and Yegor Sharangovich’s shot bounced off Lyubushkin and through the five-hole on Oettinger. Ugly, ugly, ugly.

• There really is no excuse to be losing to this team on home ice in the situation they are in. This is a bad team at the end of a season that is well over for them. The Stars should have 25+ shots and a 2-0 lead. But in these games, and especially down the stretch when you are mostly locked into your playoff seeding, it can be easy to lose the little details. Robertson getting on the wrong side of the puck on the wall is a great example. That’s hockey 101 taught from the time you play as a kid. Just a lack of focus all around, and they need to figure it out and not waste two points here tonight.

Flames 2, Stars 1

Period 3

• The vibes around this team have not been great lately in general. But if they lose this game, they are going to be bleak. Winnipeg is an outlier right now. They need to prove it’s what they are really capable of.
• This won’t help. Zayne Parekh beats Oettinger glove side from the top of the left circle on the power play. It didn’t look like Oettinger was screened on the goal.

• Mikko Rantanen helps get it right back, though. Rantanen went for the wraparound on the far side of the Calgary goal… Why does that feel so familiar (Maybe Game 7 vs. Colorado, eh)? The wraparound hit Cooley’s pad, and Wyatt Johnston had a slam dunk in front to quickly make it 3-2 under a minute after the Calgary goal.

The kid knows how to score 🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/llRrb1P1Zk

— x – Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) April 8, 2026

• Some line shuffling to start the third period. Hryckowian is up with Johnston and Rantanen, and the second line is Robertson, Duchene, and Mavrik Bourque.
• Line shuffling worked. First, Johnston scored, then Duchene raced to a loose puck — amongst two Flames defensemen skating right at him and leaving the slot wide open (again) — and chipped a pass over to Robertson, who just barely poked it over Cooley’s pad to tie the game. Calgary was getting away with horrendous defending earlier. Dallas made them pay on the past two chances.

• Calgary has allowed a power-play goal in five straight. Dallas has the second-best power play in the league. They are now 0-3 tonight. And the Flames are doing their best to give them a goal.
• Tyler Myers got danced inside out by Farabee. Oettinger made a huge glove save on a great chance in tight.
• Dallas got a bench minor for too many men with seven minutes to go in the third of a tie game. Yikes. They, including Stars coach Glen Gulutzan, were not happy about the call.
• Now Myers was given a major penalty for boarding. Ryan Strome went off bleeding. It looked like Myers left his feet and exploded up into Strome’s head from behind. But maybe the officials thought Strome turned at the last second… Because somehow, someway, they overturned the call and gave him no penalty. Wow. Stars could’ve been in some real trouble there.
• Rantanen is so good at hockey. Coming in 1-on-3, he still found a way to draw all three Flames to him and slip a between-the-legs pass to Johnston streaking through the slot. Wow.
• Bourque made a great play with a strong stick to win a battle in the neutral zone. Those are the little things he has really improved on.

OT

• Strome got his stick up high on Robertson in the same spot he took the hit from Myers earlier. Robertson’s nose was leaking all over the ice, and Dallas got a four-minute 4-on-3 power play.
• After a very deliberate sequence of chances, sending Duchene out to win faceoffs, then changing, Robertson getting cleaned up and returning quickly, timeouts from both sides, some saves by Cooley, and a whole lot of patience… Johnston got the puck at the goal line, sold the move to the middle of the ice, and quickly cut back to the backhand and chipped it over Cooley’s pad to win the game with his 43rd goal of the season.
• Duchene and Arttu Hyry were 22/27 on faceoffs tonight. Wow. Duchene went 84.6% in the dot. It was a big reason why Gulutzan kept sending him out to win face-offs on the OT power play. He won every draw and quickly got off for Robertson to come back out.
• It was not pretty, and they shouldn’t have needed to make a two-goal comeback in the third period against this team. But they did get two points and kept Minnesota as many away from tying them in the race for home ice. The game on Thursday should be a doozy.

“The third period helps you going into that next game because you had to re-focus and dig in,” Gulutzan said. “I don’t think there will be a lack of focus for the Minnesota game. But the dig in part was encouraging as we go into the Minnesota game because it makes you aware of what your mindset needs to be coming into that game.”

Stars 4, Flames 3 (OT)

Quotable

Stars forward Matt Duchene

“I don’t really care who we have (opponent) right now. I don’t think any of us really like a lot of the stuff we’re doing. Again, the third was better. But we’re not connected like we were on our long point streak. There are a lot of things that go into it, and we’ve got to get back to it.”