CALGARY, Alberta -- The NHL schedule is a grind, so they say. It's a cliché repeated by tired teams and bruised teams and fresh teams and unbroken teams, and it's become part of the hockey vernacular because of its propensity to explain events otherwise difficult to understand.
You won a game despite being outplayed and outshot and outchanced? It was a grind.
You survived injuries and rode unsung heroes to victory? It was a grind.
You went into an opposing arena, frustrated the home team and yanked two points away? It was a grind.
In beating the Flames 4-3 in overtime on Wednesday night in Calgary, the Stars finally conquered perhaps the biggest grind of the hockey season: the back-to-back.