After three straight years of near misses and five consecutive seasons of missing the postseason, the Dallas Stars are returning to the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Stars clinched the final wildcard berth in the Western Conference with a 3-0 shutout victory last night over the St. Louis Blues in front of a celebratory crowd of 18,532 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

The Stars had some nerve-racking moments in a scoreless and evenly played first period that saw Dallas generate 10 shots to nine for the Blues. There was a close call on a deflected shot by the Blues Alexander Steen that hit the crossbar and bounded away from the net.

Dallas took over the game in the second period against the injury-riddled Blues, and never looked back again. Trevor Daley brought the crowd to its feet as he sped off on a breakaway, put a shift on Ryan Miller (37 saves on 40 shots) and lifted the puck home on the backhand for the defenseman's career-best ninth goal of the regular season.

At 11:58 of the middle frame, leading Dallas scorer Tyler Seguin extended the lead to 2-0. Seguin converted a cross-ice power play setup from linemate Jamie Benn after the Stars controlled an initial right circle faceoff.

The Stars' captain, who deflected the puck to Daley on the earlier breakaway goal, earned his second assist of the game. Daley received the secondary helper on Seguin's tally.

In the third period, Dallas added a little extra insurance at the 4:27 mark. Alex Goligoski fired a point shot at the net with traffic in front of Miller. Ryan Garbutt slightly deflected the shot to earn his 17th goal of the season. Goligoski received his 36th helper of the season, while Vernon Fiddler was credited with his 17th.

The three-goal lead was more than enough for a razor-sharp Kari Lehtonen (22 saves) and a puck-hounded Dallas team defense to protect against the Blues, who were without the likes of forwards T.J. Oshie, David Backes, Vladimir Tarasenko, Vladimir Sobotka, longtime Stars captain Brenden Morrow and fellow former Dallas forward Derek Roy as well as defenseman Jordan Leopold.

Last night's playoff-spot clinching win came in the Stars' final home game and next-to-last game of the 2013-14 regular season. Dallas will be on the road tomorrow night to play the eliminated Phoenix Coyotes in what has become a meaningless game in the standings.

The identity of the Stars' opponent in the first round of the playoffs remains unknown right now. Dallas would currently play the Anaheim Ducks, who remain the most likely opponent with a one-point lead, tiebreaker advantage and a game in hand on both Colorado and St. Louis.

The Ducks play tonight in Los Angeles and then host the Avs on Sunday. They can wrap up the Western Conference championship tonight. There is still a mathematical possibility that the Stars could play either the Avalanche or the Blues in round one if the eventual Central Division champion jumps past the Ducks for the Western Division championship.

The Blues, who have lost five in a row after seeming to be a lock for the Central championship, play the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday afternoon. Colorado, who are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games and have clinched the tiebreaker advantage in regulation/overtime wins, play the aforementioned game in Anaheim on Sunday.

As for the Stars, Sunday's game in Phoenix now affords Lindy Ruff the opportunity to rest some banged-up personnel before gearing up for the start of playoffs next week. Although Colorado coach Patrick Roy is a shoo-in for the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's Coach of the Year, Ruff deserves strong runner-up consideration for the job he's done in his first year behind the Dallas bench after a long run in Buffalo.

The Stars are, for the most part, a young team and Ruff has enabled the club to find a new identity. These are no longer just the "Pesky Stars" who are long on grit and resiliency but thin on top-end talent and heavily reliant on Lehtonen to steal games. Dallas has become one of the NHL's fastest-skating teams, with a deadly top line and an underrated supporting cast.

Dallas will be a major underdog in the playoffs. They are still a bit suspect on the blueline (especially in the physical department beyond Brenden Dillon) and there were stretches of this season where the scoring depth beyond the top line with Seguin and Jamie Benn disappeared. However, the Stars often find ways to get contributions from sources other than the first line. Meanwhile, Lehtonen (2.41 GAA, .919 save percentage, five shutouts) continues to give the team a chance to win on most nights.

It would have been easy for the Stars to fall out of the playoff race when they lost the since-traded Stephane Robidas -- for many years the backbone of the Dallas blueline corps as well as a key leader in the dressing room -- to a broken leg. An horrific post-New Years tailspin (0-6-0) could have been fatal to the Stars' playoff aspirations. Likewise, a fruitless post Olympic road trip that saw the Stars get blown out in Winnipeg and Pittsburgh before a close lose in Philadelphia put Dallas' playoff push in severe jeopardy.

Each and every time Dallas appeared to be on the brink of plummeting, they found a way to right the ship. That is a testament both to Ruff's coaching as well as the leadership emerging within the Stars' dressing room.

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