The Dallas Stars don’t want Kari Lehtonen to act like a back-up goalie.
Even as he’s stepped into a more traditional back-up role, the Finnish goalie prepares like he’s the starter. He puts in extra work each day with goalie coach Jeff Reese, and he prefers to let his play — as cliched as this sounds — do the talking.
And recently Lehtonen has helped turn a position of weakness into a strength for the Stars, including a 5-2 win against the New York Islanders on Saturday.
Earlier this season the Stars were almost a lock to lose on the road. Now they’ve won five of their past six away from Dallas, including back-to-back wins this week in New York against the Rangers and Islanders.
They were the 299th and 300th wins of the season for Lehtonen, who also passed Mikka Kiprusoff on Wednesday for the most games played by a Finnish goalie.
“It was nice to get it with the first try,” Lehtonen said. “Of course it was in the back of my head.”
“It’s awesome, we wanted to get that win for him,” Tyler Pitlick said. “That’s a pretty big accomplishment for him and his family as well.”
When the season started the Stars seemed like a calmer, more composed team with Ben Bishop in goal. In the past month the Stars have seemed just as confident, if not more confidence with Lehtonen in net.
“I’ve been around him for many years now,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said. “It’s pretty special to see him accomplish 300 wins … we knew about it before the game. Obviously we didn’t talk about it, but we let him know after the game, that’s pretty impressive. He was the player of the game today for many reasons.”
Overall the Stars are doing their best to make up for a three-game losing streak last week.
That down stretch, which came immediately after a season-best five-game win streak, could have deflated this team. And a four-game road trip could have been even more detrimental if Dallas had stumbled out of the gate against either New York team.
The Stars close out the road trip this week with back-to-back games against the New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers. Odds are pretty high Lehtonen will have a chance to start at least one of those games and extend his recent road success.
“We’re in the winning business,” Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. “He’s helping us win games. The way our goaltenders are structured, we added Ben Bishop because we want to win. And that’s why Kari is still here, it’s a luxury not many teams have. Look at all the uncomfortable situations teams have been put in when there is an injury, and we’re in a great situation because we’ve got two guys that can start in the National Hockey League. Why not take advantage of it?”
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