Stars Overwhelm Penguins En Route to 7-1 Win

They say that although you can’t win a game in a period, you can lose one, but the Dallas Stars came as close as you can to winning a game in the first period tonight putting up six goals in the opening frame and cruising the rest of the way to a 7-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The storylines for the game started before puck-drop for the Stars, however, with the late news that Matt Dumba would be scratched and Brendan Smith would draw in for his 700th career game. With Dumba out, the Stars rolled with these pairings for the game:

Esa Lindell – Miro Heiskanen
Thomas Harley – Ilya Lyubushkin
Brendan Smith – Nils Lundkvist

First Period

Scoring started almost immediately after puck drop with Matt Duchene taking rush shot 2:33 into the game that squeaked through Joel Blomqvist’s glove side with Brendan Smith picking up the secondary assist to get on the scoreboard in his milestone game. It was a goal Blomqvist probably should have saved after getting a piece of the puck, but it wasn’t enough to keep it out of the net.

Duchene’s goal was the first shot of the game for the Stars, and things would not improve much for Blomqvist after that. Wyatt Johnston followed up the goal almost immediately with a shot off the crossbar and out of the rink. Soon after that, the Stars third line got the Penguin’s defense chasing them in the offensive zone and Logan Stankoven curled out from the goal line and fired the puck below Blomqvist’s blocker for his third goal of the season. Stankoven leads the Stars in shots on goal, but has been a bit snake-bit in terms of actually getting pucks by goaltenders. Hopefully this starts a run of finishing luck for him.

Mason Marchment beat out icing on a timing play and one-timed a lively bounce off the end boards over Blomqvist’s shoulder and bar down for the third goal of the opening period. That was it for Blomqvist who was pulled in favor of Alex Nedeljkovic after giving up three goals on just eight shots in just 10:16 of playing time. Brendan Smith picked up his second point of the game on the dump-in. At this point Razor made a remark to the effect of, “Smith is already halfway to catching up to Heiskanen in defenseman scoring.” Foreshadowing!

The Penguins mounted a strong push in response to their started getting pulled, but it was quickly rendered moot when the Stars once again put the Penguins in the spin cycled in their own zone. Heiskanen, having apparently heard Razor’s comment, walked down the wall before bumping the puck off the boards behind the net to Marchment, who quickly returned the puck to Heiskanen via a cross ice pass. Heiskanen one-timed the pass past Nedeljkovic, who was unable to stop the first shot of the game he faced.

Only 1:28 later, Heiskanen broke up a D to D pass in the Stars defensive zone and broke in on Nedeljkovic alone scoring on his second consecutive shot.

Sidney Crosby would take a roughing penalty with just 1:49 left in the first period sending the Stars to the power play. Things looked dangerous for the Stars when the Penguins generated a 3-on-1 rush shorthanded less than thirty seconds into the power play. However, Kris Letang was unable to finish a backdoor pass and Matt Duchene sprung Marchment and Tyler Seguin on a 2-on-1 rush the other direction. Seguin did what Letang could not, and slid his own backdoor play past Nedeljkovic for the sixth goal of the opening frame.

The Stars finished the first period with a commanding 6-0 lead and a 12-7 advantage in shots on goal.

Second Period

The Penguins came out with a stronger effort to start the second period, closing the gap with the Stars in shot attempts and drawing a power play off a Brendan Smith boarding penalty.

Fortunately for the Penguins, Alex Nedeljkovic stood tall. The Stars generated several quality chances back-to-back while shorthanded, starting with a breakaway attempt by Roope Hintz, and a one-timer by Thomas Harley after Hintz collected his own rebound. Later Heiskanen would add a shot on shorthanded 2-on-1 rush, but couldn’t convert the hat trick goal.

Anthony Beauvillier would score after the Stars had a very Penguins-esque defensive breakdown that allowed him to skate to the net front unchallenged to finish a feed from Valterri Puustinen. It wasn’t a good play by the Stars, but was really the only notable breakdown of the full 60 minutes, in my mind.

After 40 minutes, the Stars continued to hold a dominant 6-1 lead and led 22-13 on the shot clock.

Third Period

The Penguins once again came out with a strong push, but with the game well out of reach, it fizzled fairly quickly. After a flurry of chances failed to produce a goal, the Penguins took their last shot of the game with 13:22 remaining, and the Stars controlled play the rest of the way.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin took two penalties back-to-back, and although the Penguins killed the first penalty, they allowed a late goal from Wyatt Johnston to re-extend the Stars’ lead to 6 goals, which Mason Marchment assisted on for his fifth point of the night. From that point, the Stars played the last 4:50 of the game without a whistle. Even with such a commanding lead, the Stars continued to push, generating several good chances, while the Penguins played with almost no energy, barely chasing the puck at all as the clock ran out.

At the final buzzer, the Stars walked out of the building with a 7-1 win that may have been even more dominant than the score.

Stray Observations

• Jake Oettinger didn’t have to work too hard in this one, but he had a strong bounce-back game. The only goal he allowed was a defensive breakdown leaving his backdoor completely open and he was able to shut down any sustained moments of pressure from the Penguins without allowing a goal.
• Despite all three players going pointless, the Stars top line had a good game, leading the team in expected goals percentage per Evolving-Hockey. Jason Robertson in particular had one of his better games this season, winning puck battles at a rate that he’s struggled to so far, though he’s still struggling to get shots for himself, only putting one on net.
• Even though he allowed two goals on his first two shots faced, Alex Nedeljkovic played a strong game overall. The Penguins were porous defensively in front of him and this was a game where expected probably understate how dominant the Stars were overall.
• Wyatt Johnston finally scored and he really deserved one in this game. He led the Stars in individual expected goals with 0.88, well clear of Heiskanen’s 0.55.
• Sidney Crosby took two penalties and Evgeni Malkin took another and I think all three could be described as acts of frustration. The Penguins are flailing right now, and the Stars did good to take advantage of a team that’s out of sync with each other.