In a crucial playoff race game, the Dallas Stars came out with the win

With a very tight race for the last playoff spots in the Western Conference, both the Dallas Stars and Arizona Coyotes met in a game with huge points at stake and produced a very entertaining night for those who watched.

While the last eight games have been a nightmare for the Coyotes in Texas, losing all of them, for the Stars it was the team from Arizona that came in first with a goal from captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

The goal gave the Coyotes’ captain the record for all-time leader amongst defensemen in goals in franchise history moving past team legend Teppo Numminen.

The hope of the home team was back in the second period when Roope Hintz scored a goal to tie the game on a power play. It resulted in a lot of energy into the building, and for his team, that had four straight wins prior to this game.

The Coyotes would eventually regain the lead with a Kevin Connauton goal thanks to a deflection off Stars’ defenseman Roman Polak. The goal was the first for Connauton, ending a 38-game drought.

Huge penalty kill and momentum switch for the Stars

After Alex Goligoski had to leave the game due to a bad hit, and the Coyotes were left with five D-men but Arizona had a five minute man advantage that they failed to capitalize on in the third period that would come back to haunt them.

While the Stars drew two penalties they also managed to score two goals on the man advantage to get the game lead for the first time with John Klingberg scoring and later Radek Faksa.

Momentum completely changed and the Dallas Stars took advantage of a very vulnerable defense to score once again this time with the Swedish Mattias Janmark to complete three goals in a span of fewer than two minutes.

Playing with heart and soul, the Arizona Coyotes took a few minutes to realize what was going on but then came back in full motion in a night where they outshot the opposition.

Vinnie Hinostroza made a crucial play after the fourth-line completely dispatched the Dallas defense on the forecheck in a true example of the Coyotes lately.

Alex Galchenyuk came back with nice moves to tie the game and give the night some life but the final say was for the NHL star line of Alexander Radulov, Jamie Benn, and Tyler Seguin who created a play impossible for Darcy Kuemper to save and give the game its final 5-4 numbers.

"We've got to realize it's (essentially) playoff hockey right now, and you've got to find a way to hang around the games." -- Coyotes captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Coincidence or not, the next games for the Coyotes and the Stars are against the Nashville Predators. The Coyotes go into Nashville this Tuesday for a back-to-back night and the Stars do the same but on Thursday.

These teams will have an opportunity to rematch on Saturday as the Stars go into the desert for the famous Kachina night games in Gila River Arena.

Will the Coyotes now turn this recent losing streak into winning against Nashville? Comment in the section below!