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DALLAS - The Stars cleverly announced during Wednesday night’s game that the Ott-toberfest ticket promotion has been extended into November by two games by the “league offices” since Steve Ott was slapped with a two-game suspension for his hit on St. Louis’ Carlo Colaiaicovo last Saturday night. And for much of the night, the Ott-less lineup looked limp and allowed a one-win Toronto team to rally twice and then grab the lead midway through the third period.

Only then did the Stars seem to get their dander up. Mike Ribeiro’s redirection in the slot tied the score with 2:45 left in the third period. Then young James Neal, devoted Leafs fans as a lad growing up in the Toronto suburb of Whitby, displayed his offshoot of the Gordie Howe hat trick to help get the game into overtime and win it almost three minutes in by a 4-3 score.

It’s the first time this season the Stars have won a game played beyond regulation. With Florida (2-7-1) coming in Friday and a Saturday night visit to Nashville (4-6-1), the Stars (16 points in 12 games) have a golden opportunity to push San Jose (17 in 13) for the lead in the Pacific Division after the first month.

For the better part of Wednesday night, the Stars seemed destined to make 23-year-old Maple Leafs winger Nikolai Kulemin an overnight star. Kulemin was a healthy scratch four times in the first eight games as Toronto dug itself into the bottom of the Eastern Conference. But when the Leafs finally broke into the win column on Monday night at Anaheim, Kulemin turned from fourth-liner into second-liner. Against Dallas, he scored his first two goals of the season, the second one giving Toronto a 3-2 lead 13:11 into the third period. He took what was a relatively quiet gathering of 16,302 (I thought Leafs fans would show up in droves and make racket like Dallas Red Wings fans) and turn it almost silent.

That finally changed when Ribeiro tipped a wrister from Jamie Benn past Toronto rookie goalie Jonas Gustavsson at 17:15. That was really the first Stars offensive success of the night. Brad Richards had given Dallas a 1-0 lead late in the first period by banging the puck off the skate of Leafs defenseman Ian White from behind the net. Richards had also scored the Stars’ second goal for a 2-1 lead early in the second period, 20 seconds into a 5-on-3 advantage after Ribeiro sold a high sticking penalty on Toronto’s Michael Komisarek. Could be that call resuled in the holding penalty whistled against Brenden Morrow a few minutes later that led to Lee Stempniak’s power-play goal to tie the score.

Kulemin threatened again in the closing seconds of regulation, charging toward the net with the chance to leave the Stars with their fourth loss in five home games. But Neal would have none of it and “escorted” Kulemin off into the corner. The puck eventually made its way near the right point to White, who wound up for a slapper. But there was Neal again, making a sliding block on the final play of regulation.

Stars coach Marc Crawford tilted ice time toward his top two lines throughout regulation, then went with them exclusively in overtime. Neal was on the ice for 1:25 of the extra 2:57 when he collected a rebound to Gustavsson’s right and slid it into the net as the goalie was trying to come all the way across from the left post. “Went across the line pretty slow,” Neal said sheepishly. “But I’ll take it.”

Which summed up the night for the Stars. They hadn’t played since Saturday yet couldn’t find any rhythm, couldn’t find much energy. They were outshot 10-2 in the first period and at one point early in the second had gone almost 20 minutes without an official shot on net, their best chances resulting in near-miss connections or shots off target. Said Crawford: “When you don’t have your best stuff, you have to make sure your habits are very good.”

So in Ott’s absence, who was expected to provide his unique contribution to Stars hockey? And who succeeded in doing that? Crawford’s list began with captain Morrow.

“He’s probably one of those guys who didn’t have his best stuff tonight,” Crawford said. “Yet that’s the veteran quality of a Brenden Morrow; he recognized the team doesn’t have much, and he went out and played with a physical edge. He had a couple of huge hits. I think that allowed our guys to take notice. And that’s a lot of what Steve Ott brings.

“There were [other] people that tried, but they just couldn’t get there. Some of the guys on the fourth line [which was Brian Sutherby, call-up Francis Wathier and Krys Barch]. Some of the guys on the third line [which was Tom Wandell centering for Toby Petersen and Fabian Brunnstrom]. They had trouble getting there tonight.”

Not Neal. The 22-year-old sophomore played a season-high 21:38 and now has goals in the last three games (to take the team lead with seven), points in the last four. Crawford said of him: “You get a little payback when you block a shot, when you battle for loose pucks, when you get in on the forecheck.”

The Toronto Maple Leafs team that will visit AAC on Wednesday night won’t drag in the NHL’s only winless record after all, winning at Anaheim on Monday night 6-3. You commit 17 penalties like the Ducks, and Niklas Hagman is going to make you pay - three power-play goals (giving him a team-high six this season). The Leafs have risen to 1-7-1.

The Stars’ schedule this week appears appetizing with the Leafs followed by Florida at AAC on Friday and a trip to Nashville on Saturday. Toronto and Florida are last and next to last in goals against. Nashville and Florida are last and next to last in scoring, with Toronto 25th. Dallas will face Toronto and Florida minus Steve Ott, suspended by the NHL for two games for his pop on St. Louis’ Carlo Colaiacovo on Saturday night.

The Leafs are in the second year of the Brian Burke-Ron Wilson regime. (This will be Wilson’s first appearance in Dallas since his top-seeded San Jose Sharks were ambushed in the second round of the ‘08 playoffs, causing his departure from the Silicon Valley.) Their first season together resulted in the Leafs’ fourth consecutive season missing the playoffs.

This season, well, the numbers speak for themselves. Mike Zeisberger, the Leafs beat reporter for the Toronto Sun, published a comprehensive look at what had gone wrong going into Monday’s game, including a look at each player.

With Burke’s version of urban renewal, Toronto’s roster features only a handful of players who were there before he and Wilson took over. Their offense has been bad. Their penalty killing has been awful. Their goaltending has been poor. Vesa Toskala has a 5.56 GGA in four starts. Because rookie Jonas Gustavsson was sidelined for much of the last three weeks with a groin pull, Toronto had to resort to No. 3 netminder Joey MacDonald for three starts. Gustavsson, the free agent from Sweden whom the Stars courted, finally made his second start on Monday in the win over the Ducks.

Burke brought in free-agent tough guys Mike Komisarek from Montreal (part of a flotilla let go by Bob Gainey) and Colton Orr from the Rangers. Then there was the 11th-hour trade with Boston to acquire right wing Phil Kessel. Toronto parted with its first- and second-round draft picks for next summer and its first-rounder for 2011. Kessel scored 36 goals last season, more than any Leaf. But he also brought with him a bum right shoulder, injured last March. Kessel hasn’t played yet, only started practicing with the team last week, and Wilson is aiming at early next week for his medical clearance.

Other than that, things are going fine in the quest to win Toronto’s first Stanley Cup since 1967.

Florida owns the league’s longest non-playoff drought (starting in 2001) and is only ahead of Toronto in the East. The Panthers gambled on not trading defenseman Jay Boumeester last spring to take a run at ending that drought and failed. They have few scoring threats. The only Panther going into Wednesday night’s game against Ottawa with more than two goals is new center Steve Reinprecht (four), known more for his defensive play in Los Angeles, Colorado and Phoenix. So far, Stars fans are glad Florida didn’t re-sign Karlis Skrastins.

And we can’t close out October without another Stars-Predators tilt. Third meeting of the month, the teams won’t see each other again after that until the Stars return to Tennessee in late March. Since the Stars beat Nashville 6-0 on Oct. 14, the Predators have one OT win to show for their last five efforts. They’ve been shut out three times. Veteran center Jason Arnott is the only forward with three goals. Didn’t help that wing J.P. Dumont, their top point producer last season, missed four games after bring clocked by the Stars’ Stephane Robidas in the season opener.

FRISCO – Mike Modano was back skating with the team on Monday morning. Matt Niskanen is working toward returning for Wednesday’s next game. Nicklas Grossman’s face is healing nicely, thank you.

Modano was encouraged that he participated in most of Monday’s practice but still cautious regarding his return with no timetable: “Seems like it gets to two or three days [feeling good], and then I feel something,” he said. Coach Marc Crawford anticipates both Modano and Jere Lehtinen (out again Monday) practicing Tuesday in advance of Wednesday night’s home game against Toronto.

• Matt Niskanen went through the full Monday session. He missed Thursday’s game at L.A. and Saturday’s win at St. Louis after being submarined by Anaheim’s Evgeny Artyukhin in Wedneday night’s win (which earned Artyukhin a three-game suspension).

“I feel a lot better than better than I did about 20 minutes after,” he said. “Made me see some stars.”

Niskanen, from small-town Minnesota, isn’t the type to get in an opponent’s face. But he admitted getting worked up over Artyukhin’s hit: “I think if I had been able to stand up, I would have had some nice words for that guy.”

Niskanen in a scrap? The last one took place just before the All-Star break, at Florida. “Didn’t go so well,” he admitted.

Growing up in the same hometown as the Hanson brothers of Slap Shot fame (Virginia, Minn.), Niskanen said he and his high school teammates took note of the Hansons’ tactics on the ice.

“Their first shift is probably the best shift in the history of hockey,” Niskanen said. “The way they’re flyin’ around, cheap-shottin’ guys. We used to make fun of that. We never really two-handed anyone across the head in a game.”

• Nicklas Grossman has junked the visor that he was wearing after taking a puck below the left eye early last week. Recalling the play itself: “I saw him get the puck on his stick. Then bodies came in front. Suddenly, I had a puck in the face. You can see it coming, but you don’t have time to react. You feel a little sting.”

Grossman has a plus-minus of +12 through only 11 games, leading the NHL. In case you’ve forgotten the Dallas club record, it’s +43 by Modano. The record for a defenseman is +37 shared by Derian Hatcher and Darryl Sydor.

Crawford said Grossman’s plus-minus is a valid barometer of his play: “Oftentimes in plus-minus, you can protect maybe one set of defensemen. Nicklas is not a guy we protect. He has played really well with Stephane Robidas. They seem to really enjoy playing together. He does a good job of supplementing the attack, making good first passes out of the zone, allowing the puck to get in to our talented forwards’ hands. Those are things that sometimes go unnoticed when you don’t get points.”

• Some follow-up notes on Mike Heika’s piece in Monday morning’s DMN on Marty Turco playing less and enjoying it more. When Turco sat out last Thursday at Los Angeles, that marked the third game that he hasn’t started this season. The date of the third game that Turco didn’t start last season with young Tobias Stephan playing behind him? Try Dec. 13. Then Turco started the next 32 consecutive until sitting out Pittsburgh’s visit on March 1.

Last Saturday night, Turco came within minutes of recording his second shutout of the season. His second shutout last season came on Jan. 27.

Marc Crawford

They have a lot going on in Los Angeles, what with the Dodgers going out and the Angels following closely behind. Doesn’t appear the local papers or web sites are taking much notice of Stars coach Marc Crawford making his first return to Staples Center following his inglorious run as coach of the L.A. Kings.

It has been about a month since Crawford called together his first Stars training camp. It was no secret that Joe Nieuwendyk sought a tougher edge, a louder voice when hiring Crawford to replace Dave Tippett.

What did the players hear about their new coach? “That he was pretty tough and pretty demanding and likes to lose his mind once in a while,” Mike Ribeiro said with a laugh. And so far? “I think he’s trying to get not too emotional either way, after a big win or after a big loss,” Stephane Robidas said. “Sometimes he’ll snap on the bench, but that’s part of who he is. He’s a guy who’s trying to keep everybody honest. We knew he was going to be tough that way. I think so far he’s been really good for us.”

Crawford said early this week that he has tried to adapt to the Stars’ organization more so than the converse, which was the path taken in Los Angeles. There has been a certain continuity in the House of Gainey, passed on to Doug Armstrong and now to Nieuwendyk.

“Everybody kind of does things the Stars way,” Crawford said. “I think it’s a better way to go than doing it the other way. The other way’s a lot of work when you’re changing it. The only guys that stayed [in LA] were the broadcasters.”

Said Brenden Morrow: “We know how competitive the guy is when he’s out there in morning skate and wanting to compete in drills. I don’t think that surprises anyone, but I don’t think you see that a lot out of coaches – practicing with his guys, the type of emotion he has.”

Crawford has never been out of work long through an NHL coaching career that began with Quebec in 1994-95 – he had to wait a few months for the first lockout to end to make his debut. The longest was one full season last year, when he did TV. As he explained recently upon returning to his adopted home of Vancouver, his yearning for an NHL job was reaffirmed when he saw how miserable Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish was after a loss. The fire that helps ignite players can also shorten fuses in the front office. He was gone from Colorado only two seasons after winning a Stanley Cup. He stayed six full seasons in Vancouver, won one playoff series and there was the ugly Todd Bertuzzi-Steve Moore incident and subsequent legal case that’s still ongoing. The L.A. stop lasted only two years. North of the border, some fans can’t forget Team Canada’s poor 1998 Olympic performance under his watch.

On the current Stars roster, only new backup goalie Alex Auld has much of a history with “Crow,” he was called in Vancouver – five seasons with the Canucks. Auld said Crawford is a little different but “it’s kind of hard to put my finger on it.”

“I think all the stuff that makes him such a successful coach is the same – his passion, his intensity, his preparation,” Auld said. “People learn from their experience. … he jokes around a little more, which I think is good.”

Said Crawford in response: “Maybe I’m a funnier guy now.”

Ribeiro thinks so: “Sarcastic comments that he likes to make. It’s been good. I think his speeches before games are pretty good.”

(Now, he’s not in the category of Ron Wilson, who evoked the memory of Crazy Horse while coaching Washington during the Stanley Cup Finals.)

“Actually, I’ve done more of them,” Crawford said. “That’s one change.”

As Elliott Pap mentioned in his recent Vancouver Sun story, there is a history of “Summer Crow” and “Winter Crow” based on the coach’s moods. Having gained points in all five road games following Wednesday night’s win at Anaheim, it’s still summer as far as the Stars are concerned.

DALLAS – In Monday night’s 4-1 loss to Los Angeles, the Stars missed Brad Richards. All of them. The shooter. A point man on their top power play. Dependable in the face-off circle. Without him … them … an already depleted Stars team was reduced to a one-line offense outdone by the Kings’ one-line offense. And that was enough to lose to a flu-ridden opponent dragging in a three-game losing streak and playing its sixth consecutive road game over 10 days.

On Monday morning, Stars coach Marc Crawford announced the groin problem that Richards has been playing with for weeks would keep him out of Monday night’s AAC meeting with L.A. and possibly out of Wednesday night’s road trip opener game at Anaheim. Crawford stated the obvious, that others would have their chance to step up and fill Richards’ void.

The response was predictably spotty from many players still earning their wings as NHL’ers. “We made a lot of young mistakes,” Crawford said.

With Richards and Mike Modano, Steve Ott and Jere Lehtinen out, the Stars resorted to bringing up young Perttu Lindgren for his NHL debut and keeping defenseman Marc Fistric at forward.  The Richards and Ribeiro lines have shouldered most of the offensive load so far this season. Ribeiro’s line was left to provide most of the attack on Monday night.

Mike Ribeiro, Brenden Morrow and Jamie Benn accounted for 20 of the 29 shots taken by forwards and the only Dallas goal. That was a product of Morrow’s grit and guile late in the first period when he flicked a blind, backhand pass from behind the L.A. net to Benn, planted in the crease. Benn jabbed it through Jonathan Quick.

The Stars grabbed the early lead on a road-weary opponent. But the Kings’ top line of Anze Kopitar, Ryan Smyth and Justin Williams took control for an 11-minute stretch of the second period. It began with Smyth’s power-play goal at 5:17, scored shortly after the Stars survived a 1:37 five-on-three (killed solely by Ribeiro, Karlis Skrastins and Trevor Daley). L.A. added scores from Williams and Kopitar within a three-minute span midway through the period when the Stars ceded control of neutral ice. The makeshift Dallas combinations on the ice for those goals were Fistric-Petersen-Barch (at the end of a long shift) and Brunnstrom-Wandell-Neal.

The Stars pounded Quick with 15 shots in the third period with nothing to show for their efforts, and L.A. added an empty-netter at the finish. The Kings came into the game 30^th in the league in face-offs and won 25 of 46 to help keep the Stars at bay.

“We made the turnovers. We created their chances,” Ribeiro said. “It got away for 10, 15 minutes in the second period, and they took advantage of it.”

Said Morrow: “It’s a lack of execution, trying to do the easy thing. Trying to make it easy on yourself. I don’t know if you call that lack of effort.”

There was no lack of effort from his line – Ribeiro hit the post twice – but the results were minimal.

“If we didn’t get the chances, I think we’d be a little bit concerned,” Morrow said. “It’s just a matter of time before they start going in. The pucks were there. They were bouncing off our sticks. That just happens.”

Four games into the home schedule, the Stars have only three points at AAC. Yet they’ve come away from Calgary and Chicago with wins.

Crawford acknowledged it was a gamble to add Lindgren to the lineup (“The game got a little tense for him.”), and he’ll look for more size and reliability when considering reinforcements from the Texas Stars for the upcoming trip. Richards might be back Wednesday. Ott might be back Wednesday after taking his first morning skate with the team on Monday. Modano told DMN’s Mike Heika that he recently tweaked his opening-night rib injury and considers himself day to day for a month.

Having played three games in four days, the Stars will play the usual back-to-backers in Anaheim and L.A. on Wednesday and Thursday nights and stop in St. Louis on Saturday night before getting three days off. Such breaks will be rare in a schedule compacted in an Olympic season.

“That’s why you work so hard in the summertime,” Morrow said, “so you’re in good shape.”

DALLAS – Center Brad Richards won’t play on Monday night against Los Angeles, finally missing a game after playing with a sore groin for weeks. Wing Steve Ott finally skated with his teammates this morning and might be ready to return Wednesday night when a three-game road trip begins in Anaheim. Center Mike Modano and wing Jere Lehtinen are a ways off and probably won’t make the trip.

Coach Marc Crawford said Richards will also take Tuesday off, go on the trip and be re-evaluated on Wednesday morning in Anaheim. With Richards out, the Stars brought up center Perttu Lindgren. The Loui Eriksson-James Neal line will be centered by Lindgren, Tom Wandell or Toby Petersen.

In citing players who will be looked to in Richards’ absence, Crawford mentioned second-year wing Fabian Brunnstrom. “He hasn’t had a great deal of opportunity to score in the situations where scorers usually score,” Crawford said. “He hasn’t gotten a lot of quality power-play time. He hasn’t gotten to play on a top line this year, and he has the ability to do that. But he’s been real receptive to the work that we’ve needed him to put in.”

Brunnstrom came to Dallas with much fanfare, the Stars signing the young Swede who was considered coveted by Detroit among others. He became the second NHL player to notch a hat trick in his debut, ran hot and cold much of the season, then closed strong with three goals in the final three games to finish with 17 in 55 games. in at least a dozen times in those 55 games, he logged less than 10 minutes of ice time.

Maybe the expectations were too high and the agreement by Dallas not to send him to the minors a necessary evil in order to sign him. But Eriksson and Neal proved to be better scoring threats last season, then 20-year-old Jamie Benn swooped in this fall and landed a spot on the line with Mike Ribeiro and captain Brenden Morrow. Brunnstrom has played mostly with Wandell and Krys Barch.

“People who watched him last year … you know that he’s a streaky player,” Crawford said. “He has that ability to come in and fill in and play on a top line, really do a good job. That’s what we’re hoping will happen as he gets a real good opportunity to play here tonight.”

Said Brunnstrom: “Sometimes your game isn’t where you want it to be. I’ve been feeling better and better in every game. As long as we’re winning, I can’t complain.”

Captain Morrow on Brunnstrom: “It’s still such a big adjustment for those guys [Europeans] to come over and play the game on the small ice. He competes hard. If he is strong in the right areas, not turn pucks over at the blue line. He’s strong enough on the puck offensively and creative enough that he can make plays. As long as he’s not making those mistakes in those key areas, he’s going to keep getting better and better.”

Ott has only been skating on his own the last few days after suffering a strained oblique muscle a week ago. The tough part for him now is to push toward returning without overdoing it. “I had one of these five or six years ago,” he said. “It’s an awfully long season. There’s a need to play hurt, but right now I’d be more of a detriment than a player. I want to make sure I’m contributing as much as I usually can.”

DALLAS - The Stars will again be without Jere Lehtinen, this time with an injury to a chest muscle. That’s three regular forwards on the shelf – Lehtinen, Mike Modano and Steve Ott. So the Stars have brought up 23-year-old Aaron Gagnon, who has one goal in five games with the new Texas Stars. Ray Sawada might have been tabbed ahead of Gagnon, but he has been out since the pre-season after injuring a thumb in a fight. On defense, Mark Fistric gets the call in place of Jeff Woywitka.

The Bruins, a popular pre-season pick to win the East, are off to a 2-3 start (all played at home). That’s enough to have coach Claude Julien juggling personnel as Boston begins its first road trip, to Dallas and Phoenix.

Your pick for star of the game? I’ll take Loui Eriksson.

Pardon the Boston Bruins if they don’t feel terribly nostalgic about the first time that they came to Dallas with the State Fair of Texas in full tilt. It was 1995, just a few hours after the Texas-OU game (a 24-24 tie), and the Bruins were cruising along with a 5-3 lead going into the final minute of the third period.

That’s when events took a drastic change at Reunion Arena and the Stars made NHL history.

It seemed like a futile act of desperation when Stars defenseman Richard Matvichuk, in his first season in the regular rotation, jumped high to keep the puck in the offensive zone early in that final minute of the fourth game of the season. He then fired into the slot, where fellow defender Kevin Hatcher deflected the shot into Boston goalie Craig Billington and then beat him on the rebound at 19:11 (the clock showed 48.8 seconds to go). That pulled the Stars within 5-4.

Stars coach Bob Gainey brought goalie Andy Moog to the bench with 28 seconds left but sent him back out soon after when there was a face-off in the Dallas zone. The draw was won by Mike Modano, who then trailed the attack up ice. Bruins left wing Dave Reid, a future Stars favorite, tried to backhand a pass out of the Boston zone. But Modano kept the puck in and tied the score at 5-5 with assists to Hatcher and left wing Greg Adams at 19:44 (15.2 on the clock).

Gainey left Moog in the net with the score even. Stars newcomer Guy Carbonneau –acquired from St. Louis only 12 days earlier after forward Bob Bassen was lost with a knee injury – won the face-off at center ice and got the puck over to right wing Todd Harvey, who shot it down into the right corner. Stars left wing Mike Kennedy beat Boston defenseman Rick Zombo to the puck and shoveled it toward the net. It glanced off Billington and then caromed off Carbonneau’s chest into the net at 19:55 (4.4 on the clock).

Said Modano after the game: “It’s probably the most everyone has been excited on this team in three years. I can probably count the comebacks on one hand, but none came close to that.”

I’d say so. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it marked only the second time an NHL team trailed by two goals going into the final minute of the third period and won in regulation. The other team to accomplish the feat was the Montreal Maroons in March 1932 over the New York Rangers, though they did it under vastly different circumstances regarding manpower. According to Elias, the Maroons scored three times between the 19:12 mark and 19:36 – but all with the Rangers down two skaters.

Moog was the Stars’ No. 1 goalie when the team began play here in 1993, but he didn’t come here with the franchise from Minnesota. He was acquired in the summer of ’93 from Boston after playing six seasons for the Bruins. The October ’95 miracle finish marked his first victory over his former team in three tries.

In the small world of goalies, Moog had been traded to Boston late in the 1987-88 season by Edmonton for Bill Ranford. (Ranford and the loquacious Daryl Reaugh each played six games behind Grant Fuhr that season.) Ranford eventually returned to Boston and was the Bruins’ No. 1 goalie in 1995-96. Billington was his back-up and was making his second start of the season that night, having lost at Colorado 3-1 three nights earlier.

Moog, now on the Stars’ coaching staff, recalled that night in October 1995: “In Reunion in those early years, it was very easy to get the crowd stirred up. When we made it 5-4, the momentum shifted so greatly right then. On the next one, the place just erupted. I don’t think they ever got to their seats before the third goal. It was so loud. And this time of year, it was always so hot in there. It was energy filled, action packed, emotional … it was certainly one of the best places to play.

“I remember going with a few of the Bruin players into the West End. I think we went to Dick’s Last Resort, and we sat on the patio. We didn’t talk about too much. They were just shell-shocked. Well, both teams were stunned.”

(Please join me tonight for an in-game blog.)

Dish Network customers in Dallas and the surrounding area won’t receive the Stars-Nashville game being telecast by Fox Sports Southwest.

Fox SW increased this season’s schedule to 61 games and, according to the Stars, increased the charge paid by local cable and satellite systems. Dish was the only carrier that declined to pay the increase and is currently scheduled to miss out on 20 games, including tonight and Friday night’s home game against Boston.

Jamie Benn

By coincidence, the hockey playing Benn brothers from Victoria, B.C., both came into this season aiming to play for the Dallas Stars’ new American Hockey League affiliate down in Cedar Park near Austin. Jamie, a 20-year-old wing, instead earned a roster spot in Dallas, continuing his meteoric rise since being drafted in the fifth round only two years ago. Jordie, a 22-year-old defenseman, didn’t make the AHL Texas Stars’ roster and has been assigned to the new Central Hockey League club in Allen, the Americans.

Half a continent from home but about 15 minutes from each other, one Benn is living his NHL dream ahead of schedule while the other is seeking his own.

Inseparable was the first word that Randy Benn used to describe his two sons. “Best friends,” he added. “When Jordie was four and would go shoot pucks in the driveway, Jamie would go shoot pucks in the driveway.”

Hockey was only half of the Benn boys’ athletic passion while growing up on the south end of Vancouver Island. They also played baseball well into high school. Randy was a top-notch softball player in his day, playing on Canada’s team in the 1976 world championships and the 1979 Pan Am Games.

“People down in the States think all of Canada freezes over in the winter,” Randy said, some distain in his voice. “That happens here a week at the most.” The Benn boys played a lot of roller hockey, often on a neighbor’s tennis court.

Jamie with Kelowna

In 2004-05, Jordie joined the junior A Victoria team in the British Columbia Hockey League while Jamie played for the local junior B club, the Peninsula Panthers. They spent one season together with the Victoria Grizzlies, 2006-07. Jamie’s 42 goals in 53 games there earned him a mid-draft selection by the Stars and a spot in major juniors with the Western Hockey League’s Kelowna Rockets up in the mountains of eastern B.C. He led Kelowna in goals in 2007-08 and ’08-09 and followed last season’s effort with a terrific post-season (13 goals in 19 games as Kelowna won the league title). He added four goals in six games on the Team Canada squad that successfully defended its world juniors crown in Ottawa. Along the way, he grew from 5-7 while in junior B to 6-2, 207 pounds.

After that 2006-07 season when the brothers played together, Jordie remained with the Grizzlies for another season and was named the team’s most valuable player. He then signed with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, which assigned him to the Victoria Salmon Kings of the East Coast Hockey League. (Yes, the ECHL goes all the way to the West Coast.)

After the Manitoba contract expired, Jordie told his agent that he’d played in Victoria long enough and wanted a change of scenery. It was the agent, he said, who suggested the Texas Stars.

New Dallas Stars coach Marc Crawford had little to go on regarding Jamie when he was signed to replace Dave Tippett last summer. There were excellent “calling cards” on prospects that were put together by Les Jackson referring to the qualities that each should focus on. And Crawford watched Benn three times at the world juniors. “I did notice his quick hands and that he has a real good mind,” he said.

Injuries to Jere Lehtinen provided Jamie, a left-handed shot, additional exposure during the pre-season. In the game at St. Louis, he played on a line with Steve Ott and Tom Wandell and made a breakthrough in Crawford’s opinion.

“He seemed to springboard with his confidence,” Crawford said. “We kept putting him in positions that were conducive to allow his talents to come forward. A lot of time you put guys in positions like that, and not much happens. He led our team in scoring chances in the pre-season. He probably played the most. But you do that as a 20-year-old in the National Hockey League, that says a lot.”

Benn not only made the club, he was teamed with captain Brenden Morrow on Mike Ribeiro’s line beginning on opening night. On the recent three-game trip through western Canada, he picked up an assist in Edmonton, another in Calgary and his first NHL goal in Vancouver – in front of about 100 relatives and friends who took the ferry over from Victoria.

“I’m here now, and I’m loving it,” Jamie said.

Ribeiro noted that, at Benn’s age, he was just trying to keep his spot on the fourth line: “With his size and speed, he has everything to become a great player, and I think he’s been proving to us that he can help the team win right now. He will make the right play and the right decision. It’s surprising to see at that age he can do it.

“The only thing I told him last game was shoot the puck a little bit quicker. When you have a chance to shoot, shoot it. I’m not the biggest shooter. So if you have a chance to shoot, don’t pass.”

Jamie’s schooling in graduate-level hockey will continue on the job. Said Crawford: “We’ve been pretty good about recognizing that he hasn’t had to play away from the puck, which you get more so in the American Hockey League than in junior hockey. We do all the drills with him just on his coverage in the zone. We do a lot of puck protection, positioning drills, one-on-one so that he’s shading the right way. Those are things that any player will tell you they didn’t know a lot of when they first came into the league.”

Jamie is living with Wandell near the Stars’ Frisco headquarters. Jordie is living in Allen with teammate Liam Hucalek (HOOCH-a-lack). The brothers talk to each other just about every day and looked into the possibility of rooming together.

“We’re really close, but he needs to concentrate on his hockey and I need to concentrate on my hockey,” Jordie said. “Once he gets settled in and I get settled in and things get calmed down and into a routine, we’ll probably be able to see a lot of each other.”

Jordie Benn

Jordie – 6-0, 180 and also a left-handed shot – is one of six defensemen currently on the Americans’ roster and the youngest player on the team. The Americans will play at the new 6,100-seat Allen Event Center just off Highway 75 at Stacy Road. The Americans will open on Friday with the first of seven consecutive road games before hosting Corpus Christi on Nov. 7.

Randy and wife Heather are planning a mid-November trip to see the boys play. Jordie was able to attend Jamie’s NHL debut at home two weeks ago.

“We all knew he had a chance [to make the Stars this season],” Jordie said. “I’m sure my dad would be humble and say, ‘He has a chance, but he has to work hard.’ But in the back of our heads, we knew he was going to make it.

“My goal for the year is to play well here, get a lot of ice time, hopefully have a big role. Every guy’s dream is play in the National Hockey League. The way to do that is to work hard and just keep moving up.”

(The next in-game blog will be Friday night when Boston visits. On Friday morning, I’ll post an item looking back at the Bruins’ famous October visit in 1995 – the night of the Texas-OU game – when the Stars became the first NHL team to trail by two goals going into the last minute and win in regulation.)