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What a way to start the season. The Dallas Stars, though undermanned and slightly out of sorts, managed to rally together and kick off 2016-17 with a win. Post game wrap-up can be found below.
The Dallas Stars beat the Anaheim Ducks in their 2016-17 season debut to earn their first two-points of the season, by a score of 4-2.
Recap
Stephen Johns put the Stars up 1-0 with a back door tap-in goal early in the first period. Anaheim’s Andrew Cogliano tallied an unassisted short-handed goal to tie the game at one.
Newcomer Lauri Korpikoski scored his first goal as a Dallas Star to regain the one-goal lead for Dallas. The Stars took a 2-1 advantage into the second intermission.
Cogliano scored his second goal of the night about a minute into the third period to tie the game again. Antoine Roussel, however, scored at 1:23 of the period to give Dallas a 3-2 advantage. Adam Cracknell then gave Dallas their first two-goal lead of the night with a goal midway through the third period.
Thoughts and Observations
Confused Special Teams
The Stars had a number of very confusing plays defensively while on the power play. It was almost as if the groups of five completely forgot that they were, in fact, up a player.
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Bad transitions and questionable passes led to a shorthanded goal against in the first period and far too many chances in the final forty minutes.
That will definitely be a point of concern for the Stars moving forward. It’s never a good thing when the opposition is doing better offensively when they’re killing the penalty. And it’s certainly something Lindy Ruff and the rest of his coaching staff will take a look at.
Atypical Production
At the forefront of the Dallas Stars is their league-best offense. When thinking about the core of forwards at the Stars’ disposal the names that come to mind are Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin.
Benn and Seguin, however, were not the goal-scorers in tonight’s match-up. Jamie tallied an assist on Johns’ first period goal, but other than that he was left off of the score sheet.
While depth scoring isn’t a bad thing at all, it is surprising. Dallas’ three other goals were by Korpikoski, Roussel and Cracknell, which are two guys who again don’t fall into that typical, goal-scoring role.
As far as highlights of the game go, the contributions from depth players are one of the biggest positives of the night.
Owning the Crease
Antti Niemi had a high quality performance in net for the Stars in the season debut. He stopped 33 of 35 shots, ending the night with a .943 save percentage. He was good when he needed to be and it would be hard to fault him for the goals he did surrender.
Those are two things the Stars are hoping to be able to say in most of their games this season. Dallas doesn’t have to have the best goaltenders in the league, but they have to be able to hold their ground and take care of their job.
Tonight, however, Niemi did more than just take care of his job. He was able to close out players in tight and take away high quality scoring chances for the Ducks. Maybe his most impressive feat of the night was his ability to remain calm. It didn’t matter if there were five guys around the blue paint or just one on a breakaway, Niemi looked confident. That’s exactly the Niemi the Stars want to see in net.
Next Game
The Dallas Stars will travel to Colorado to take on the Avalanche this Saturday. Puck drop is set for 8pm and we’ll have full coverage here on Blackout Dallas!