DALLAS — It was just before the midway point in the third period of a game that had no margin for error when the Montreal Canadiens made one.

That might not be entirely fair because Arber Xhekaj clearly caught an edge and fell just as Colin Blackwell was taking a pass at the Canadiens blue line, which is more bad luck than an error. But still, the result was the Dallas Stars suddenly were gifted a two-on-one break in a game tied 1-1 where the result hung in the balance on every play.

The Canadiens did not deserve this bad break, but there it was.

David Savard did everything he could to cut off the passing lane, but Blackwell still got it over to Stars rookie Matěj Blümel, who was alone in front of countryman and Canadiens rookie goaltender Jakub Dobeš, whom he would have faced in the Czechia U-16 league way back in the day.

Blümel got a good shot off, Dobeš made an even better save with his blocker, and the game remained tied 1-1. Just over a minute later, Alex Newhook won an offensive zone faceoff back to Lane Hutson, curled towards the net and tipped home Hutson’s shot from the blue line to give the Canadiens a 2-1 lead they would not relinquish in a 3-1 win on the road against one of the best teams in the NHL.

Dobeš is now 4-0-0 in his NHL career with wins in Florida, Colorado, Washington and Dallas, four of the top-12 teams in the NHL standings. That’s all.

“When I was in Laval, I wanted to be here,” Dobeš said. “The one thing is I want to prove that I belong here, and the second thing is I kind of want to show everyone they made the right choice. There were a lot of days in Laval where I wanted to be here, so it was kind of a motivation to show everyone that maybe they were wrong (to send me down). I don’t want to say it in a confident way, I just want to prove myself, that’s pretty much it.”

But as extraordinary as Dobeš’ run has been, to make this solely about him would be a disservice to what the Canadiens are doing.

From the time Newhook scored at 9:15 of the third period to the end of the game, the Stars had 16 shot attempts. Six of those were blocked, another six missed the net largely because the Canadiens were in the shooting lanes, and only four actually reached Dobeš. The average distance of those four shots, according to the NHL play-by-play, was a little under 41 feet.

The Canadiens were credited with 23 blocked shots in the game, but more importantly, all but two players on the team had one. The fact Jake Evans and Josh Anderson were those two players shouldn’t reflect badly on them, of course, but the collective effort of the team to finish a win in a business-like, mature fashion against a quality opponent on the road is what shines through in that stat.

It’s about buy-in.

There was a time not that long ago where a one-goal lead on the road against a powerhouse opponent was almost a guaranteed loss for the Canadiens. They would find some way to mess it up, to make a bad turnover late, to try to make a play instead of just getting it deep and forcing the other team to work that much harder to tie it up.

Those days appear to be over. And it’s because of buy-in.

“The players are sacrificing a lot for something that’s bigger than themselves, and you can see it,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “It’s contagious. It’s not just one player making sacrifices. It’s the group.”

Kaiden Guhle blocked a slap shot from Jason Robertson with a little more than seven minutes left in the game. He retreated to the bench in severe pain, doubling over as he sat down, banging on the boards and visibly suffering the aftereffects.

He didn’t miss a shift.

But more than just that kind of sacrifice, buy-in entails respecting a way to play, recognizing game situations and acting accordingly, knowing when it is time to make a play, to take a risk, and when it is time to keep it simple, to manage the game and manage the puck in a way that leads to winning.

And that buy-in, more than anything else, is what has led the Canadiens to an 11-2-1 record in their last 14 games, doubling the number of wins they had in their first 30 games.

But buy-in doesn’t just happen. It is cultivated. It is a push and pull between coach and players. It is building belief and trust.

It is an abstract concept that has no clearly defined formula to achieve it. But the Canadiens have found it, and St. Louis’ willingness as a coach to work with his players to find buy-in might be the biggest factor.

“I think as coaches you have to sell,” St. Louis said. “Our job is to convince them why we want to do things a certain way. If they’re not convinced, they’re not going to buy in. So, we’re selling. We’re trying to sell, we show examples, we have conversations, we have debates. I think it’s a very open forum, but there’s a direction we want to be going in.

“I always say I’m not a dictator. I’ll lean on my players and ask their opinion. But it’s not about being a right-fighter, it’s about just getting it right for the group. And then our job is to hold them accountable to our truth.”

By “right-fighter,” St. Louis meant not fighting to prove you are right and instead focusing on what the right answer actually is.

Earlier in the season, the Canadiens’ hybrid defensive zone system appeared too heavy for his players to properly execute, but when questioned on it, St. Louis defiantly defended the system, stating that this is where the NHL is going, and if you can’t play a defensive zone system like this, then maybe you just can’t play in the NHL. Except despite that public defiance, St. Louis was much more malleable behind the scenes and made subtle changes that simplified the defensive zone system just a little bit, and the result was significantly better play in the defensive zone.

The Canadiens still play a hybrid system in the defensive zone, but it is much easier for his players to execute.

That is just one example of the push and pull of buy-in, of collaborating, of not being a dictator.

But more than that flexibility, by far the biggest factor that contributes to buy-in is winning.

And the Canadiens are fully bought-in right now.