Defining play: Mattias Janmark beats Duncan Keith in overtime

Mattias Janmark picked a key moment for the first multi-goal game of his NHL career.

Fifty-one seconds into overtime the Swedish forward picked up a loose puck, flew past a defenseman recently picked as one of the 100 best players in NHL history, and delivered a 4-3 overtime victory for the Dallas Stars against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday.

Mattias Janmark kicks it into high gear and roofs one past Crawford to give the Stars the 4-3 win in overtime in Chicago. pic.twitter.com/94ps3k1JmK

— Dylan Nadwodny (@dnadders) December 1, 2017

Speed has always been a strength of Janmark’s game.

And after he missed the entire 2016-17 season with a knee injury, that was one of the biggest questions surrounding the forward — would he still be able to reach top gear?

“Yea, it’s a constant struggle,” Janmark said. “I think with all the games sometimes you feel great, then you go through a couple (where) you don’t feel great. I think it’s taking some time and I’m probably going to go up and down a little bit more, but overall I think I’ve been able to play on a good level.”

Janmark found the right level on the game-winning goal.

After John Klingberg won a 50-50 puck battle in the neutral zone Tyler Seguin left the puck for Janmark in front of the blue line.

Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith was caught in a bit of no man’s land, and was flat footed when Janmark picked up the puck.

“It was kind of a bouncing puck going back forth, he was kind of all alone and I think he was stepping up a little bit,” Janmark said. “At the same time I started skating toward their net, so I felt right away that I had a step on him so I felt like that I didn’t have to do to much.”

Keith tried to take away the middle of the ice, but Janmark took advantage of space on the left side and beat the defenseman to the front of the net.

Janmark didn’t tip his hand as he approached Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford. The blade of his stick even remained closed until the final moment — opening it earlier would have been a tell of a high blocker shot — and the Stars forward flipped home the game-winning goal on the stick side.

While it wasn’t Crawford’s fault on the goal, it was the second time the Stars caught the Chicago goalie trying to aggressively push across to his glove side.

In the second period Remi Elie was the recipient of a well-placed pass by Radek Faksa and skated in on a pseudo breakaway. Elie faked the hard drive across the net, seemingly trying to set up the backhand shot, and got Crawford to bite before going back to the stick side.

Tyler Pitlick creates a turnover. It's picked up by Radek Faksa, and he puts it where only Remi Elie can get it. Elie channels his inner Modano and puts it past Crawford. 3-2 Stars. pic.twitter.com/XneC2d4HrJ

— Dylan Nadwodny (@dnadders) December 1, 2017

That goal also happened to come against Keith, who couldn’t keep up with Stars speedy forwards on either of the goals.