NHL teams
Craig Custance, ESPN Senior Writer 8y

Third-line prospect Radek Faksa rises to the occasion for Dallas Stars

NHL, St. Louis Blues, Dallas Stars

DALLAS -- It was a series of negative events that led to this positive moment. In February, Jason Spezza was put on the injured reserve and the Dallas Stars called up their 22-year-old center prospect Radek Faksa for depth down the middle.

In March, Tyler Seguin was knocked out of the lineup with a 15 percent cut of his Achilles tendon. It led to the shuffling of the Stars line and a promotion of Cody Eakin into the top six.

With the shuffling, Faksa was put on a line with Ales Hemsky and Antoine Roussel in a trio that is exactly the kind of line that wins hockey games come playoff time.

On Friday night, they did exactly that.

It was Faksa's goal with less than five minutes left in the game that proved to be the winner in Dallas' 2-1 win over the St. Louis Blues in Game 1 of their second-round series. On that goal, Faksa drove home a rebound on a Hemsky shot. The Stars' only other goal was a Faksa shot that was saved by Brian Elliott, who played his heart out, and buried by Roussel.

With all the focus on the Stars' stars and the expectation that they would need to go off to beat the Blues, it was the checking line that did the damage.

This win was also a glimpse into the kind of impact player Faksa, selected with the 13th overall pick in 2012, can become for the Stars. Really, he's exactly what they need behind their offensive standouts.

"That's what happens. Everybody is keeping their eyes on the big stars and workers like that come through," Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen said. "That was nice."

Faksa isn't necessarily a guy who is going to create a lot offense moving forward in this series. He had five goals in 45 games during the regular season and perhaps that's why his smile was so huge after scoring the big one Friday night.

"I'm very excited after every goal. Maybe too excited," Faksa said. "It's just part of the game, enjoying every game in the NHL. Just a big excitement for me. It just feels great."

Part of the excitement comes from an appreciation for the moment following a shoulder surgery that wiped out half of his season last year. He took a hit in January that required surgery, and by the time the Stars' prospect camp rolled around in July, he'd been on the ice only three times.

So even with his pedigree as a high first-round pick, he wasn't sure there would be a moment like the one he enjoyed on Friday so quickly in his career.

"I'm very glad, grateful I get a chance here," he said. "I appreciate it."

And he has completely won over his coach and teammates in the process. When it was suggested to Spezza that not much was known about Faksa, the veteran center predicted a change.

"You're going to learn," Spezza said. "He's a heck of a player. ... He's always in the right spot. You can tell he's been well-coached. He's a big guy down the middle who doesn't cheat. Ever."

That honest game makes the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Faksa a player the defensemen on the Stars have learned to trust implicitly even without a full NHL season under his belt.

"He's an awesome defensive forward. He's got good poise for his age. He keeps going the way he's going, he's going to have a long career shutting down lines," defenseman Jason Demers said. "It's good for a D-man, knowing you have the support. We can play with a little more depth knowing he's always there."

In this game, the Faksa line saw plenty of the Vladimir Tarasenko line. Of the 14:28 Faksa played at even strength, 6:21 came when Tarasenko was on the ice. Faksa did a great job eliminating space for Tarasenko, at one point sending him to the ice and wiping out a threat.

Blues coach Ken Hitchcock leaned heavily on his star Russian while trailing for most of this game. Time on ice, which was a storyline for Tarasenko in the first round, wasn't in the opener. He played 21:04, more than any forward on the Blues.

If this is the matchup Stars coach Lindy Ruff sticks with, how well Faksa can contain Tarasenko, who will most certainly get his scoring chances, will help determine whether the Stars can build off this Game 1 win.

He has the size and hockey IQ to pull it off.

"He plays the body. He plays hard," Demers said of Faksa. "He's not dirty, but he finishes. He doesn't kill guys but it's frustrating to have guys run into you all game. ... He did a great job on Tarasenko, and Tarasenko is an unbelievable player."

The Blues never quite found the high emotional level they maintained throughout the series against the Chicago Blackhawks. They showed signs of getting there in the third, especially their fourth line, but the Faksa goal wiped it out completely.

"It's just one of those things where we played seven really good games in a row. This was an off one," said Blues captain David Backes. "We weren't as good as we were against Chicago. That's on us."

The Blues will certainly push back on Sunday (puck drop is 3 p.m. ET). They showed too much character in the first round not to.

But now, that third line centered by Faksa gives them something else to think about.

The Blues weren't immediately ready to engage at a high enough level emotionally Friday. Faksa most certainly was. That's what he does.

"There isn't a battle he doesn't want to engage in," Ruff said. "There's not a play he quits on. His play has been infectious for our team."

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