Sometimes it feels as though we live in the age of contrived sports milestones. Every game is the first time this happened, the 10th time that happened or a player is joining some long list of accomplishments that no one ever really thought about.
Jamie Benn’s night was different from that Monday. Or at least it was set up to be different. The 33-year-old team captain became the second player in franchise history, joining the revered Mike Modano, to play 1,000 games entirely in the Stars organization. And while doing it in a difficult 3-2 overtime win — this one over the lowly Anaheim Ducks — Benn actually broke into a smile when his achievement was recognized in the first period.
After a week off, the first-place Stars’ fans were ready to cheer and celebrate and the Ducks — the last-place team in the Pacific Division with an appalling minus-80 in goal differential — were supposed to provide the easy fodder. Defenseman Nils Lundkvist got the scoring started in the first period, and Roope Hintz made it 2-0 in the second after a nice steal from Denis Gurianov. The club’s leading goal scorer, Jason Robertson, had two big scoring chances in the second period but a breakaway shot caught the crossbar and then goaltender John Gibson, a busy man with 41 Stars shots on goal Monday, made the necessary stop on a backhand.
