Maybe it really is the wild west in Texas.

The Vancouver Canucks overcame a 2-0 deficit after the first period, securing a 5-3 win against the Dallas Stars. It didn’t really look like a result like this was ever going to be in the cards after that rough opening frame, but whatever happened in that first intermission flipped a switch in Vancouver. They came out and played their best hockey since the third period in the home opener. Hopefully, that’s more reflective of the kind of standard that they’re going to be playing at more consistently, because that was darn good.

Here’s the win, by the numbers.

As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

With the hole that Vancouver dug themselves into during the first period, there was no way the trendlines for puck possession or expected goals were going to come out of Dallas’ favour. The extent of the domination can be seen in every category – the Stars posted an 8-5 high-danger chance edge, racking up 1.97 xGF at 5v5 play in comparison to the Canucks’ 1.00 xGF. They delivered as much, scoring twice off the momentum that they built for themselves.

However, instead of getting swept away, the Canucks managed to regroup during the first intermission. While they didn’t dominate to the extent that the Stars did in the first, Vancouver was able to flip this game on its head. With just a slight edge in CF% at 54.29, the Canucks managed to deliver a 62.82 xGF%, keeping the Stars to just 0.53 xGA while posting 0.90 xGF themselves. It was a show of efficiency too – Vancouver struck three times off of five high-danger chances in the middle frame alone. That was all this team needed to close out the game for the win.

The heat map was actually pretty even last night, which was definitely a plus given how the game started off for the Canucks. Total scoring chances were pretty neck and neck, with Dallas posting a slight edge with 22-20. The high-danger chances saw the Stars ever so slightly edge the Canucks out 12-11. Again, given how that first period went, this is really solid work by the team. Vancouver played low-event, defensive hockey to secure the win in the third period, meaning that neither team really got anything going through the final frame. What should also be encouraging is that the Canucks only gave up 1 5v5 goal last night.

Corsi Champ: Arshdeep Bains once more led the Canucks in Corsi, posting a 93.75 CF% in his fourth line role. The entire Abby line was cooking during their TOI, thrown out there to eat a couple of minutes and doing more than enough to keep things rolling through the lineup. During his TOI, Bains was only on ice for a single shot against, with 6 shot attempts for Vancouver in that same span. Tidy work, to say the least.

Corsi Chump: On the entire other end of the spectrum sat Aatu Räty, who posted a team-worst 12.50 CF%. That was enough to give him a -46.04 CF% rel to team average with the next lowest CF% rel mark being a -34.20. Räty got caved in playing against the Stars’ fourth line, somehow managing to be on ice for the third-worst xGA (1.79) while playing the third-least out of any active Canuck skater. It’s genuinely eye-popping to see him on ice for a 1-9 scoring chance deficit, but what makes it even worse is that all 9 of those scoring chances were high-danger. So, in his 8:40 TOI, Räty was on ice for 75% of the Stars’ 5v5 high-danger chances. Not good.

xGF: Thanks to that excellent defensive work, Bains also led the Canucks in xGF% share with a team-best 84.69 xGF%. That is mostly off the back of a team-best 0.06 xGA, which makes sense given that only one shot came against him and his line. In terms of raw xGF though, Marcus Pettersson led the way with a 1.35. It makes sense, as the defender was on ice for 11 scoring chances (a team-high) and 6 high-danger scoring chances (also a team-high). Not bad from a defensive defenceman.

GSAx: Probably the most “mortal” of Thatcher Demko’s appearances. A 3.90 GAA and 0.903 SV% doesn’t look too impressive on paper, but across all situations the netminder faced 3.90 xGF against the Stars. Conceding three goals still gave him a 0.90 GSAx, which is pretty crazy to think about. Even in his “worst” performance of the year so far, Demko still nearly saved a full goal above expected. The three goaks against him were split evenly between high, middle, and low danger, which isn’t bad work at all. Demko kept the Canucks in it early and came up big to help buy time for the win.

Signs of life?: After a pretty disastrous own goal, it seemed that it could only go downhill for Elias Pettersson. But, that didn’t happen, as luckily the Swede was able to turn his game around. He made his presence felt, throwing his body around and getting in front of pucks. While he didn’t find the scoresheet again, at the very least his numbers are trending the right way. Pettersson’s 66.92 xGF% put him as the team’s 6th-best mark, while also posting the 5th-best xGA at 0.28 during his TOI. It would be nice to see him start scoring with consistency again, but considering how it all started last night, we’ll take this.

The duality of man: Evander Kane’s numbers are straight-up hilarious. Defensively, his advanced stats were a complete and utter tirefire, on ice for a team-worst 2.19 xGA off a 6-16 scoring chances hole and 5-11 high-danger chance deficit. That’s right, Kane was on ice for all but 1 high-danger chance against from the Stars at 5v5 play. That being said, he also generated some offence, as his 0.94 xGF was the team’s third-best mark. Obviously, you don’t want these numbers consistently on the defensive end, and Kane isn’t skilled enough to be a defensive liability game after game. But honestly, he looked better this contest and did manage to show up on the scoresheet, which the Canucks definitely needed.

Thank goodness for that first intermission, because if Vancouver kept up their level of play in the first period this game would’ve been a one-sided blowout. As it was though, they pieced together the best period they’ve played in a couple games and closed out the contest without causing too many heart attacks. The Canucks have been winning these games with their star players remarkably missing or not performing up to their usual standards, which is a slight cause for concern. But, on the bright side, the rest of the roster is picking up the slack to get things done. Hopefully, once the likes of Quinn Hughes and Pettersson actually get producing, this team can compete for a full 6o.

Vancouver is right back in action tonight, heading into the United Center to take on the Chicago Blackhawks.