Lehtonen Shines, Dallas Stars beat Vancouver Canucks 6-3
Four goals in three and a half minutes between the end of the first period and the start of the second led the Dallas Stars to a 6-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night. It was their first home win of the season, which improved their record to 3-1-2, while the Canucks lost for the second time in a row to drop to 3-2-0.
Recap
Ryan Garbutt scored the first goal of the game with a feed from Antoine Roussel to start the offensive outburst that was the first period. He was followed by Erik Cole’s tally from the slot with assists credited to Jordie Benn and Shawn Horcoff. Then with less than a minute remaining in the first period, Jamie Benn passed to Tyler Seguin who blasted a one timer past Canucks’ goalie Ryan Miller to make it 3-0.
The second period turned the game on its head with goals at both ends of the ice. In the first minutes Jamie Benn scored off of a feed from Seguin to make it 4-0 Dallas and then Ryan Garbutt’s breakaway led to Cody Eakin’s goal, making it 5-0 Stars. Vancouver opted to pull Ryan Miller from goal after Eakin’s tally in favor of Eddie Lack.
The change in net sparked the Canuck’s offensive push and Radim Vrbata scored to cut the lead to 4; however, shortly after Erik Cole scored off a feed from Shawn Horcoff and Brenden Dillon to restore the five-goal lead. Vancouver then cut the deficit to 6-2 with a goal at from Zack Kassian. Dallas killed off a penalty to Trevor Daley late in the period to take their four-goal lead into the second intermission and end a second period that saw a plethora of goals.
The third period saw an abundance of penalties and ensuing power play opportunities; however, Dallas maintained their lead. The Canucks appeared to have a power play goal, but it was waived off due to goalie interference. Then a Vancouver goal by Jannik Hansen was initially waived off, but after a referee huddle it was determined to count with 13:15 remaining in the third period. Despite offensive pressure from the Canucks Dallas managed to maintain their lead and win 6-3 in regulation.
Thoughts and Observations
Kari Lehtonen was more himself in this game than any other thus far this season. He saw the most action in the second and third periods as Vancouver was pushing back post goalie change, but he held his own and controlled the Canucks rather talented offense.
Although Lehtonen’s stellar play is reassuring considering the rather rough start he had to the season, Dallas’ defensive play is still in question. The blue line depended on Lehtonen too much in this game and often got lazy in their own zone. Furthermore, Lehtonen’s 43-save performance goes to show the immense amount of pressure he was under.
In the last two games Dallas has scored 12 goals by a multitude of players, a positive sign for the offense of the club because goals are hard to come by in this league. Erik Cole’s two goals tonight should instill confidence in him moving forward, while Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin’s continued offensive contributions will only help moving forward.
Ultimately Dallas played a decent game. It wasn’t a stellar performance by the team as a whole despite rather impressive play of individual players. They still need to work on special teams, defensive zone coverage and limiting the amount of shots their goalies face, while also continuing their recent offensive success. Nonetheless, this game is one to build off of and it will serve as a stepping-stone for improvement.
The Dallas Stars take on the New Jersey Devils on Friday, so be sure to check back for a preview to that game and all the other Stars games this season!