Dallas Stars Continue To Surge, Slip By Flyers 2-1 On Road

2. 119. 1. 68. Final

The Dallas Stars continue to throttle each and every opponent they face, and their most recent show played out on Tuesday night. The Stars offense once again jumped out to a fast start led by their top two contributors, and they held on to take the 2-1 win. The Stars are now 5-1-0 on the season and have won four straight games.

Game recap

First period

For the second game in a row, the Stars showed a slow and moderate start in the first period. Jamie Benn took an early penalty for cross-checking, but the Stars would get away with it and complete the first penalty kill of the night. The teams would trade chances back and forth, with neither goaltender giving an inch.

With 51.8 seconds remaining in the first, the Dallas Stars would finally crack through and get on the board first. John Klingberg heaved a long pass from zone-to-zone where it found Benn who poked it across to Tyler Seguin for the score. The goal was Seguin’s fourth of the season and bumped him up to nine total points through five games. The first period would end with the Stars holding onto a narrow 1-0 lead. Shots through the first were 14-7 in favor of Dallas.

Second period

The Dallas Stars are all about fast starts, and though it did not show up in the first period, it made sure to come around in the second. Jamie Benn took away a puck in the neutral zone and looked off Patrick Sharp to score on a laser shot. Tyler Seguin and Alex Goligoski were credited with the assists. The 2-0 lead and stellar play of Antti Niemi obviously began to agitate the Flyers. With 15:05 left, Antoine Roussel and Sam Gagner had a semi-fight, in which Roussel won rather quickly.

Eight minutes later, Roussel slashed Ryan White and ended up in another scrum. The second period ended with the Stars controlling the pace and boasting their 2-0 lead. Shots were 26-20 in favor of the Stars, and Niemi was two-thirds of the way to his second shutout of the year.

Third period

The Stars began the third period by reverting to an old tactic: playing not to lose. The Stars sat back and rested all of the weight on Antti Niemi, who had to make two or three game-changing saves (which combined with the three or four he had made earlier in the game). Johnny Oduya and Wayne Simmonds took offsetting penalties with 14:22 remaining in the game. The penalties were killed, and the game went on.

With 11:03 left, the Flyers got the puck to the front of Niemi’s cage and somehow found a way to bounce it over Niemi and in. The Stars lead was cut in half and the Flyers grabbed some momentum. Jason Spezza put the Flyers on a power play with 6:09 remaining, but the heroics of Antti Niemi shone through as he made two more big stops.

The Stars were on their heels until 2:08 left in the game when Matt Read slashed Oduya and put the Stars on the power play basically for the remainder of the game. The Flyers emptied their net and turned up the heat, but the Stars stood tall and nabbed the 2-1 win. The final shot total was 35-32 in favor of Philadelphia.

Thoughts and Observations

-Antti. Niemi. The Dallas Stars took a gamble by trading for and signing Antti Niemi to a three year, $13.5 million deal. The thought of having two starting-caliber goaltenders on the roster threw up a red flag to some fans and analysts. But so far, bot goalies have put it all on the line. As a result, both are soaring with winning records and save percentages at or above .920.

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