The black Friday game and the new jersey debut was a success, with fans lined up around American Airlines Center for hours earlier in the day to get their hands on the new alternate jerseys.
While Stars fans filled the building with excitement and energy, tragic news came this morning at morning skate when the Utah Mammoth announced that Clayton Keller had lost his dad overnight, but was adamant on playing to honor his dad.
Historically, games between the Mammoth, formerly the Coyotes, and the Stars have always been tight games, and this game was no different. The Mammoth opened the scoring just 57 seconds into the first period. Lian Bichsel was unable to stop a puck at the blue line, causing a 2-on-1 going the other way. Alexander Petrovic was unable to take the man or the pass, leaving Jake Oettinger hanging out to dry and Logan Cooley banged one home on a pass from Dylan Guenther.
The Stars struggled most of the first period, they were chasing and defending much of the period. Around the 12 minute mark of the period, Michael Carcone won a battle in the corner, making a slick pass through the slot to John Marino, who quickly got the puck to Kevin Rooney for his first goal of the season. Suddenly, the Stars found themselves down 2-0, which is ironically where they start playing their best hockey.
When it started to look like the Stars were finally putting some offense together in the first period, the play was blown down due to Jamie Benn being flailed out on the ice, once he got up, he was pouring blood from his face. Upon further review, Sean Durzi was given a four-minute minor for high sticking. They already had an attempt at the man-advantage earlier in the period and did not capitalize. To start off the double minor, Mikko Rantanen takes a shot from up near the blue line and Roope Hintz gets a piece of it, getting the puck past Vitek Vanecek. Since the Stars scored before the second minor started, they remained on the power-play for the remaining two minutes of the period. They were unable to tie it up and went into the second frame down one goal.
As expected, the Stars were back to playing their game, dominating play, moving the puck through the neutral zone and creating offense. Radek Faksa laid a big hit, creating some chaos, which led to Dimitri Simashev turning the puck over as he lost a skate blade. Benn was right there in front of the crease to gobble up the puck and notch goal number 401 of his career. Just 62 seconds later, the Stars find themselves back in the offensive zone with a puck loose in the blue paint.
Unfortunately for Utah, Jason Robertson found the puck in the blue paint and jammed it by Vanecek to give Dallas the lead for the first time of the game. However, Utah's Jack McBain would tie it up with less than five minutes left in the second period. In an unusual scenario, the Mammoth got called for two tripping penalties at once, by Ian Cole amd Kevin Stenlund, giving the Stars a full two minutes on the 5-on-3 advantage.
Just 28 seconds into the 5-on-3 power-play Wyatt Johnston tallied his 10th power-play goal of the season, allowing one Mammoth player out of the box. The Stars did not convert on the second half of the power-play and the second period ended with just a couple seconds left on it.
The third period, both teams tightened up. The Stars did a good job of not allowing the Mammoth to have many chances, especially as the time went on. Around the time the Mammoth wanted to pull the goalie, the Stars caused a lot of disruptions in the neutral zone. Esa Lindell and Rantanen both missed empty net opportunities and the game would end 4-3.
Oettinger, while wearing a jersey that paid homage to the '99 Stanley Cup winning team, and a new helmet that gave a nod to former Star, Eddie Belfour, tied Eddie Belfore with 160 wins. The Stars writer for NHL.com paid respects to Utah and the Keller family, naming Keller the first star of the game.
The Stars have one day off before taking on the Ottawa Senators at home.
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