Dallas Stars win first game of the season in OT 3-2

The Dallas Stars win the first game of the 2021 season against the New York Rangers in overtime 3-2. This was such a huge win for the Stars given last season OT was not their best friend. Here is what happened in each period.

Dallas Stars 1st period

Braden Holtby and the Stars came out with authority in the first period. The Stars offense was creating chances on the Rangers side of the ice. The defense was showing no mercy towards the Rangers giving them no chance to set things up on the Stars side of the ice.

The Stars managed to score at the end of the 1st period on a back-hander from rookie Jacob Peterson. That was his first-ever NHL goal and the first for the Dallas Stars this season. The Stars exited into the locker room up 1-0.

Dallas Stars 2nd Period

The second period started off great for Dallas when Radek Faksa added a goal of his own on the Power Play to make it 2-0. Braden Holtby shortly after that made what is most likely the very early save of the year.

After that save, Adam Fox and Chris Kreider scored in the 2nd period to tie up the game. The Stars stopped the Rangers momentum for the rest of the second period to keep it tied at 2 going into the third.

Dallas Stars Third Period 

Braden Holtby would leave the game in the 3rd period after it looked like he got poked in the eye with the stick. After the game, Rick Bowness said Holtby left the game due to dehydration. Anton Khudobin came into the game and kept the score tied and sent the game to OT.

Dallas Stars OT

This is where Stars fans started to have flashbacks to last season’s OT record. Miro Heiskanen made sure this game would not go to a shootout as he scored in the middle of OT.

Stars fans on Twitter were celebrating that the OT bug from last year didn’t continue. Overall, the Stars need to work on some things defensively but what a great start to the 2021 season. The Stars next game is against the Boston Bruins on Saturday at 6 pm.