The Dallas Stars defeat the Minnesota Wild in their second pre-season tilt.
The Dallas Stars kept their preseason record intact with a 4-2 win in Minnesota Sunday night.
Preseason is rapidly coming to an end, and the Stars just completed their second to last exhibition game. They have one more remaining against St. Louis and are currently undefeated with a record of 5-0. Dallas has now played the Colorado Avalanche and Minnesota Wild twice, and await their second matchup against the Blues.
In tonight's game against the Wild, the Stars had a fairly thin NHL line up compared to the last match-up between the two teams. The eight players to meet the NHL's requirements for a pre-season game were Colin Blackwell, Sam Steel, Logan Stankoven, Nils Lundkvist, Ilya Lyubushkin, Brendan Smith, Alexander Petrovic and Casey DeSmith. The Stars have made a few small cuts throughout camp, so some of the players who likely won't make the NHL roster are getting some extra reps.
During the first period, the Wild got their first power-play opportunity just a little over a minute into the game. Petrovic was called for holding, but the Stars penalty kill was able to fend off any real scoring chances. Next up, the Stars would have their chance at the power-play and although the power-play has struggled during the pre-season, Arttu Hyry would capitalize this time. Hyry is one of the players that could force his way into the Stars line-up. He has two goals in three pre-season games.
The second period was uneventful for both teams through a majority of the period. Neither team was creating much offense, but the Stars eventually found an offensive spark. Around the 12 minute mark, Stankoven shot a wrister from an odd angle that was able to find the smallest hole between Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt and the post. This was Stankoven's first goal of the pre-season, but not from lack of effort. In the previous three pre-season games he has played in, he put up 17 shots on goal, including nine in the first game.
The Stars went into the final frame with a two goal advantage and Logan Stankoven carried his offensive spark over from the second. About six minutes in, Stankoven has a small breakaway and delayed with the puck for just a second, stunning Daemon Hunt and Stankoven was able to finish the job with his second goal of the night. Shortly after, Smith would head the box for a tripping penalty. An odd deflection by Frederick Gaudreau from a long Marco Rossi shot got the Wild on the board with a power-play goal.
However, 22 seconds later, a defensive breakdown led to two Wild players unattended in front of DeSmith, and Travis Boyd made the Stars pay. In a matter of seconds, the Wild had come back and the Stars were only up by one. With about two minutes remaining in the third period, the Wild pulled Wallstedt, but it would not matter after Blackwell hit the empty-net to put the game away.
The Stars have three days off until their final preseason game against the Blues. Sometime in the next three days, they will likely shave down their roster to see who gets one more chance to prove themselves in the final game. The margin is razor thin for the amount of available spots given the talent the Stars have to choose from.
After that, Dallas will have an entire week before the first game of the season that takes place in Nashville against the Predators.
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