One night after shutting out the New York Islanders, the Dallas Stars blanked the Seattle Kraken 2-0 Sunday.
One night after Jake Oettinger posted a shutout in the Dallas Stars home opener, backup goaltender Casey DeSmith matched his performance with a shutout of the Seattle Kraken Sunday night.
The duo is the first in Dallas history to post back-to-back shutouts from starter and backup, and it starts the Stars home dominance off with a bang.
Over the past two nights, it hasn't always been pretty or perfect, but Dallas outscored their opponents 5-0 and withstood any pressure put on by either New York or Seattle.
The Stars came out strong in the first period, dictating the play from early on. Their puck handling appeared to be a little cleaned compared to the last two games, with the rust of the early season slowly starting to wear off. They were able to get through the neutral zone and spent a lot of time in front of Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer.
Matt Duchene was able to slide a puck across the crease to Mason Marchment who hit the post from in tight for the first high danger chance of the game. In similar fashion, at the 16:17 mark, Colin Blackwell made a cross-crease pass and Sam Steel jammed it in to put the Stars ahead 1-0.
Only 13 seconds later, Wyatt Johnston picked the top corner and beat Grubauer to double the Stars lead in rapid fashion. The Kraken were reeling headed into the locker room for the first intermission suddenly down 2-0.
The Stars fell into a bit of a second period lull, and the Kraken found their game and began to catch up to the Stars in the shoot column. Seattle drove the play most of the second period, putting up nine shots to only six for Dallas. DeSmith was finally put to the test in his first start as in Dallas, but held his own nicely as Seattle ramped up the pressure. He cleaned up some defensive breakdowns from the Stars to hold the Kraken off the score sheet in the second. Going into the third, the Stars still held a 2-0 advantage, but Evgenii Dadonov was called for a penalty in the dying seconds of the period.
Starting the third period on the penalty kill, Dallas managed to stifle any chances of Seattle quickly gaining momentum in the final frame. But the Kraken did not give up, once again making a push to put themselves back in the game. Dallas had to survive another penalty kill near the middle of the period, but DeSmith and the team defense proved to be too tough to beat for the second night in a row.
The Stars had two breakaway opportunities to put the game away for good, but Grubauer kept Seattle in it until the end. First, Tyler Seguin had a clean break from the blue line in, but Grubauer stopped him in tight. Then, Mason Marchment broke away from the Seattle defenders but also couldn't finish in tight.
With two minutes remaining, the Kraken pulled Grubauer, but were not able to get one past DeSmith. The Stars had a couple opportunities at the empty net, but time ran out without either team getting a goal, and the Stars winning by a 2-0 final score.
DeSmith's shut-out in his Stars debut was only the third time in Stars history that a goalie achieved that feat, but doing it only a day after Oettinger did made it even more unique. The new signing won plenty of fans over with his performance.
The Stars are now a perfect 3-0-0 to start the season, matching Utah and Winnipeg who both also have come out hot from the gates in the Central Division. Up next is the final home game of their first home stand against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday.
Make sure you bookmark THN's Dallas Stars site for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more.
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