LAS VEGAS — When a shot bounced off the shoulder of Ty Dellandrea and past Vegas goalie Logan Thompson with 1:26 left in the second period of Game 4, the rest of the Stars’ roster was even happier than Dellandrea.
The team was overjoyed to celebrate what would become the game-winner for Dallas in a 4-2 victory Monday that evened the series at 2-2 before returning home.
But seeing one of their favorite teammates experience the highlight of his season in the biggest game yet carried almost as much weight.
“No better teammate than Ty,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said postgame. “We all see what he’s done throughout the year. He works on his game every day.”
Dellandrea and fellow bottom-six forward Evgenii Dadonov spent more time out of the lineup than any other player on the opening day roster this season. Dadonov battled a serious injury in the latter half of the season while Dellandrea found himself scratching out of the lineup most nights.
But the two scored gritty goals in Game 4 to carry Dallas to its biggest win of the season and set it up for a chance to take the series lead at home.
“I can’t say enough about our depth guys stepping in,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “We’ve got a couple injuries. We’ve got three pretty good players out right now in [Jani] Hakanpää, [Radek] Faksa and [Mason] Marchment, and guys have come in and it’s been seamless. Not only jumped in, but had an effect on the game.
“That depth has been great. You can feel it. It’s contagious to our group. Those guys are really driving a lot of plays for us.”
Dadonov played in just 51 games for Dallas this season and missed over two months after suffering a lower-body fracture against Montreal on Feb. 10. He returned on the last night of the regular season, but it took five games before he found his first goal.
On a new line with Tyler Seguin and Joe Pavelski, the Russian forward threw a puck on net from an impossible angle on the goal line late in the first period. It ultimately bounced off the helmet of Thompson and in.
After Wyatt Johnston tied the score on a power-play goal midway through the second, Dellandrea scored his goal right before intermission. It was just Dellandrea’s third goal of the season and second game-winner in a playoff series against Vegas.
The 23-year-old scored two third-period goals at T-Mobile Arena during last year’s Game 5 to extend the series to six games.
“He likes playing Vegas,” DeBoer said.
Dellandrea didn’t even play Games 1 and 2 of this series. When Marchment and Faksa went down with injuries in Game 2, he drew into the lineup for Game 3. There was even discussion of whether AHL MVP Mavrik Bourque — who was called up ahead of Game 3 — would leapfrog Dellandrea.
Dellandrea recorded just nine points (two goals and seven assists) in the regular season after charting 28 last season and playing in all 82 regular-season games. Dallas added fourth-line depth this offseason in Craig Smith and Sam Steel, who ultimately replaced him.
Smith has also provided a spark for the Stars after being a healthy scratch in Game 1.
“A lot of different pieces have worked this year for that fourth line. Anybody that goes in there plays. We all have a little bit of chemistry,” Dellandrea said. “It’s just about trying to win games for this group. Just trying to help the group and keep that going for them.”
Dallas bragged about its depth entering the postseason after setting a franchise record with eight different players scoring 20 or more goals. That also led the NHL. But through the first three games of the series, the eight goals were scored by five players.
But Monday’s game gave Vegas a taste of how dangerous Dallas can be when its depth shines. The Stars just may need another performance like this one from Dellandrea to slay Vegas once and for all.
“There’s no one in here that deserves that more than him,” said Stars goalie Jake Oettinger, who is best friends and lives with Dellandrea. “There’s no one that puts the team first more than him. He works his butt off and never has a bad attitude.
“Everyone wants to win and not everyone’s going to have the exact role that they want, but if you win the championship, at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter.”
Twitter: @lassimak
