Thanks to their captain, the Dallas Stars are back in the Stanley Cup Finals
With the exception of the owner himself, no one deserves this moment more than the captain.
For years Jamie Benn carried the Dallas Stars, sometimes with his fists, and too often his talents and achievements were minimized or lost because his team just was not good enough.
With a better cast of players around him now, Benn no longer must, or even can, do it alone.
“We got a great team,” Benn said.
At last.
On Monday night, one win away from finally reaching the Stanley Cup Final, Benn played like a man who was not going to let his team lose this chance.
Trailing 2-0 early in the third period, the Stars rallied and defeated the Las Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in overtime to reach the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2000.
The Stars won the Western Conference Final series 4-1.
The Stars will play the winner of the Eastern Conference finals, either the New York Islanders or Tampa Bay Lightning, in the NHL’s bubble in Edmonton.
Benn did not score the winner; that was reserved for forward Denis Gurianov on a one-timer on a power play 3:36 into the overtime period.
“Feel good,” Gurianov said in a Zoom call with reporters after the game.
That’s about the most hockey answer ever.
The Gurianov shot prompted a mob on the ice of players, and fans throughout DFW to celebrate socially distanced in front of their TVs, phones or hand-held device.
“It’s a feeling you can’t describe,” interim Stars coach Rick Bowness said. “You only get so many cracks at the Stanley Cup Finals. Words can’t describe the emotion. Any time you get here, people are paying a real price.”
No player in the Stars has paid a bigger price over the years more than Benn. He was the face of this team when they were bad, and the only marketable asset they could sell.
He joined the club in 2009, and has been a constant amid constant turnover and change. They tried to make him Mike Modano, when he was really Jamie Benn.
So by the time the team reached the third period on Monday night, he played like a man who realized the rarity of the moment. He has never been this far before.
Benn’s play in the third period that made overtime possible.
The Stars trailed entering the final period against a team that was 5-0 in the postseason when leading after two.
“I didn’t look him dead in the eye but I’ve seen those eyes. He knows what to do in big moments,” Stars foward Tyler Seguin said of Benn. “We would not be here if he didn’t start that play tonight.”
The team was outplayed by Vegas in the first two periods, and was down only two early in the third thanks to goalie Anton Khudobin.
The Stars team that played in the third period was not the same team that played in the first two periods.
Even after the Knights scored 15 seconds into the third period on a clean shot, something felt different. The Stars owned the puck, and the ice.
Near the midway point of the third period, Benn scored the team’s first goal of the night.
“He’s dialed in,” Bowness said of Benn. “He does so many things to help us get into the playoffs. I’m happy he’s getting rewarded for points.”
Benn’s line with Alexander Radulov and Seguin was a load. The Stars were putting constant pressure on Vegas goalie Robin Lehner, and their defensemen were creating problems on every shift.
About five minutes after Benn’s goal, forward Joel Kiviranta scored his fourth goal of the playoffs, a power play shot to tie the game.
Whatever momentum Vegas had coming out of the room to start the third period was gone. They were holding on against a superior, and confident, team they simply could not stop.
The Stars are on one of those runs, and they are in their first Stanley Cup in 20 years.
A lot of people in the organization earned, and deserve, this moment, none more so than their captain, Jamie Benn.
This story was originally published September 14, 2020 at 11:07 PM.
