The Dallas Stars celebrated their home opener in style with a 5-2 win 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.
Game Recap
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 towards the net that snuck past the blocker of Gustavsson 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 corralled the loose puck in the left corner, skated to the left circle, then walked in untouched and let off a beautiful shot that beat Gustavsson 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 towards the net from the bottom of the right faceoff dot that deflected off of Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian’s skate and past Gustavsson.
Boldy brought the Wild to within two with a tip-in power-play goal 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 yet another power-play goal. Kaprizov sniped a shot from the left circle that got past the left shoulder of Oettinger.
The Wild put on a heavy push for the entirety of the third, but Faksa was able to ice the game for the Stars with an empty-net goal at 18:18. Hintz would tack on another with 10 seconds left in the game.
The Wild outshot 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.
Up Next
The Stars host the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night, while the Wild stay on the road and take on the Washington Capitals on Friday.
