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Stargazing: Dallas Pulls Out Opening Win in Smashville |
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It was far from easy but the Dallas Stars came away from opening night with a 5-4 road victory over the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday evening.
After a scoreless first period, the Stars built leads of 2-0 and 4-1 in the second period. However, the Predators made a heavy push in the final stanza to draw within a single goal with 1:35 remaining in regulation. The Stars managed to close out the win over the remainder of the game.
Showing their potent offensive abilities, the Stars struck early in the second period for a pair of goals spaced 19 seconds apart. At 2:05, Dallas connected on a gorgeous goal by Roope Hintz (1st of the season) set up by dynamic young forward Logan Stankoven.
Stankoven swooped around the net and then made a tape-to-tape backhanded pass to a trailing Hintz on the other side of the ice. From the left circle, Hintz fired a perfect shot into the near side top corner of the net.
Nineteen seconds later, at the 2:24 mark, Hintz and Stankoven combined with Jason Robertson (1st) for a 2-0 edge. This goal was scored in transition. Stankoven connected with Hintz on a stretch pass ( breakout strategy the Stars employed often in the opener). In the attack zone, Hintz pulled up and dropped a pass to trailer Robertson for a quick shot that found the net.
After Filip Forsberg quickly narrowed the gap on a power play goal at 3:30 set up by Jonathan Marchessault (Predators debut) and perennial Norris Trophy candidate Roman Josi, the Stars responded with mid-period power play and late-period even strength goals by Mason Marchment (1st and second of the season) for a 4-1 lead.
Stankoven earned his third assist of the period on Marchment's man advantage goal. Taking a head man pass from Miro Heiskanen, Stankoven pulled off a toe-drag move upon entry at the blue line. He dished to veteran Matt Duchene. From there, Duchene made a backhand cross-ice feed to Marchment, who beat Preds goalie Scott Wedgewood from inside the dot and near the hash marks at 8:03.
At 18:15, the Stars turned a broken play that did not appear dangerous into a sudden goal. Veteran Tyler Seguin passed to Marchment for a wrister from the top of the circle using a defender as a partial screen. Wedgewood would have liked that one back. Thomas Harley drew the secondary assist.
In the third period, trailing by three goals, Nashville made a heavy push. Tommy Novak brought the Predators within two goals at 4:37. Veteran Ryan O'Reilly turned the late desperation push into another Nashville goal at 18:25 to cut the deficit to 4-3. Forsberg assisted on the Novak goal, while Marchessault collected an apple on the O'Reilly tally.
The Stars were outshot in all three periods of the game (8-4, 13-7 and 15-9), had a rough night in the faceoff circle (the Predators won 65.5 percent of the draws) and took a half-dozen minor penalties that left them shorthanded. Thankfully for the Stars, the PK went 5-for-6. The Dallas power play was 1-for-4.
Bottom line: Dallas never trailed at any point of the game but it got a little dicey at times. The Stars were officially guilty of 29 turnovers -- 19 charged giveaways to Dallas, 10 takeaways credited to Nashville -- to 24 by the Predators. The process left significant room for improvement but the end result was gratifying.
In goal, Jake Oettinger earned the win with 33 saves on 36 shots. Opposing netminder Wedgewood stopped 16 of 20 shots.
The Stars return to action on Saturday as Pete DeBoer's club hosts Patrick Roy's New York Islanders in the home opener at American Airlines Center (7:00 p.m. CDT).
STARS STARTING LINEUP
21 Jason Robertson - 24 Roope Hintz - 11 Logan Stankoven
27 Mason Marchment - 95 Matt Duchene - 91 Tyler Seguin
14 Jamie Benn - 53 Wyatt Johnston - 63 Evgenii Dadonov
18 Sam Steel - 10 Oskar Bäck - 15 Colin Blackwell
4 Miro Heiskanen - 3 Matt Dumba
55 Thomas Harley - 46 Ilya Lyubushkin
23 Esa Lindell - 5 Nils Lundkvist
29 Jake Oettinger
[1 Casey DeSmith]
PP1: Benn, Hintz, Robertson, Johnston, Heiskanen
PP2: Marchment, Duchene, Stankoven, Seguin. Harley
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Next blog: With the Philadelphia Flyers playing their season opener tonight in Vancouver and following it up with a game in Calgary on Saturday evening, I will not have a Stars-Islanders preview blog tomorrow.
Additionally, the Flyers' AHL farm team, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, play their regular season opener on Saturday at home against the Hartford Wolf Pack. My plan is to watch the stream of the Phantoms vs. Hartford game on Saturday and then watch the Flyers vs. Flames game at 10 p.m. eastern.
With an off-day for the Flyers on Sunday, I will watch Stars vs. Islanders from the previous day and at least post a short recap and the Dallas starting lineup from Saturday's game. It may not be as in-depth as the game summary above. The full-length ones will likely be from games that are off nights for Philadelphia.
Dallas Stars Blogger • 
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