The Dallas Stars celebrated their home opener in style with a 5-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night.
Esa Lindell, Wyatt Johnston, Matt Duchene, Radek Faksa and Roope Hintz scored for the Stars. Jake Oettinger made 39 saves in the win.
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Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov scored for the Wild, while Filip Gustavsson made 20 saves in the loss.
Summary of the game
A rare goal from Lindell got the night started at 5:37 of the first period. Roope Hintz carried the puck behind the net with speed and found Lindell at the top of the right circle, who sent a wrist shot toward the net that snuck past Gustavsson’s blocker to put the Stars on the board.
Johnston doubled the Stars’ lead with a power-play goal at 16:18. After a chaotic sequence in front of the wild net, Johnston grabbed the loose puck in the left corner, skated to the left circle, then walked in untouched and fired a beautiful shot that beat Gustavsson’s glove side into the right corner of the net.
91 seconds later, Duchene scored a power-play goal of his own to give the Stars a 3-0 lead. Duchene sent a hard pass toward the net from the bottom of the right faceoff spot that deflected off the skate of Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian and past Gustavsson.
Boldy pulled the Wild within two with a power-play goal off a tip at the top of the crease at 3:50 of the third period.
Kaprizov scored his fourth of the season to cut the Stars’ lead to 3-2 with another power-play goal. Kaprizov fired a shot from the left circle past Oettinger’s left shoulder.
The Wild pressed heavily throughout the third, but Faksa was able to ice the game for the Stars with an empty-net goal at 18:18. Hintz would attack another with 10 seconds left.
The Wild outscored the Stars 41-25 and went 2-for-4 on the power play. The Stars were a perfect 2-for-2 on the man advantage.
Next
The Stars host the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday nightwhile the Wild stay on the road and take on the Washington Capitals on Friday.
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