A week ago, the Stars had most of us convinced Nieuwendyk should trade anyone and everyone because of their consistently lethargic play. Then, they started playing like they cared.
Finally.
Now, they've won four consecutive games for the first time since November. A month from now we might look back at their win Sunday afternoon over Vancouver, the Western Conference's best team, as the victory that propelled them into the playoffs.
The Stars rallied from a 2-0 second-period deficit to defeat Vancouver, 3-2, in overtime behind goals from Mike Ribeiro, Michael Ryder and Loui Eriksson.
"We didn't want to make his job easy," Ribeiro said of Nieuwendyk . "We wanted him to have to make some tough decisions."
Vancouver had been 26-0-0 when leading
