Dallas Stars Dominate Arizona Coyotes, 6-0 – Postgame

The Dallas Stars ended 2014 about as well as anyone could have asked.  They owned all three zones of the ice and skated circles around the Arizona Coyotes on their way to a 6-0 victory which has them right back in the hunt for the playoffs.  The Stars have now won 7 of their last 8 games.

Recap

The first period started off slow between these two teams.  There weren’t many chances for either side as the defending for each team was on point.  The best chance of the period for the Stars came two minutes in when Antoine Roussel had a good looking backhand shot from the slot but it was shut down by Devan Dubynk.  There was one penalty in the period as Colton Sceviour was sent to the box for tripping late in the first but the Stars killed it off with relative ease.  The first period ended with back to back big hits by Jamie Benn and Erik Cole. That may have set the tone for the second period.

The second could not have been more different than the first.  There were a few turnovers on each side that led to glorious scoring chances.  A little over seven minutes into the period, Brett Ritchie would make his mark on the NHL.  After dishing out a huge hit on Mikkel Boedker, he went to the front of the net and was fed by Travis Moen for his first NHL goal on his first NHL shot.  At this point, the American Airlines Center was going nuts and giving the Stars a lot of energy.  Less than a minute after the Ritchie goal, Jamie Benn led a quick rush up the ice and hit Colton Sceviour with a cross-ice pass.  Sceviour would fling it past Dubynk right off the pass to give the Stars a 2-0 lead.  Immediately after the Sceviour goal, John Klingberg took a delay of game penalty that halted their momentum a bit.  The Stars got a huge kill thanks in large part to Kari Lehtonen and Cody Eakin.  With about five minutes left in the period, Ritchie had a chance on the breakaway to get his second of the game but was stopped by Dubynk.  The Stars had a stretch late in the period where it seemed they were in the Coyotes zone for about two minutes but were unable to get the puck in for a three goal lead.

Everything started to unravel for the Coyotes immediately in the third period.  Shane Doan took a penalty thirty seconds in and the Stars would cash in on the powerplay with a goal from Jamie Benn.  Five minutes later, some hard work deep in the zone by Antoine Roussel pays off and he fed Cody Eakin for a slap shot that rocketed past Dubynk to put the Stars up 4-0.  The Stars were not done.  They continued to dominate play and get rewarded for it.  Ales Hemsky fired one from around the same spot as Eakin’s goal and it once again found its way past Dubynk for a 5-0 Stars lead.  The icing on the cake came with a minute to go, as Alex Goligoski fed Ryan Garbutt with a brilliant breakaway pass and Garbutt scored to make it 6-0 Stars.

Thoughts and Observations

Every single player on the Dallas Stars finished as a “plus” player tonight.  According to the broadcast, that is the first time that has happened in Dallas Stars history.  All four lines had a goal scorer in the game and they also added a power play goal.  This really showed the four line dominance they displayed tonight.

Kari Lehtonen was brilliant in this game.  Although it got out of hand at the end, he made some big saves when it was 0-0, 1-0, and 2-0 they kept the Stars rolling and allowed his team to feed off his saves.  You can see his confidence starting to come back and it is being distributed throughout the lineup in the process.

I was surprised that Brett Ritchie didn’t make the NHL squad out of training camp.  I am even more surprised now.  He was absolutely superb.  He was very physical, strong on the puck and found open areas to get scoring chances.

The Stars open up 2015 with a home game against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday, check back here on Blackout Dallas for all your Stars news and Happy New Year!