Dallas Stars Lineup
Matthew Seminoff (43) – Mavrik Bourque (22)(A) – Matěj Blümel (25)(A)
Antonio Stranges (71) – Logan Stankoven (11) – Chase Wheatcroft (48)
Francesco Arcuri (54) – Oskar Bäck (37)(C) – Kyle McDonald (40)
Justin Ertel (62) – Brad Gardiner (45) – Angus MacDonell (46)
Jacob Murray (67) – Christian Kyrou (38)
Gavin White (74) – Artem Grushnikov (59)
Tristan Bertucci (42) – Ben Zloty (52)
Remi Poirier (31)
Bryan Thomson (50)
After the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Detroit Red Wings 10-7 on Saturday evening, the coaching staff gave most of the team’s top end talent the day off on Sunday. The Dallas Stars were the beneficiaries, and the team took full advantage.
Period 1
The team came out with offensive pressure, and a minute in, Artem Grushnikov made the Blue Jackets pay with a seeing eye shot from the left point.
Dallas maintained zone pressure, throwing a shot a minute at the Columbus net. Half way through the period, on one of the Blue Jacket’s first opportunities, the Stars defensive coverage broke down in the crease. Bertucci arrived just a second too late and a point blank shot found its way past Poirier.
After the tying goal, Columbus fought their way back, but the period ended in a tie.
Shots – 17-10 Stars
Goals – 1-1
Period 2
The start of the second saw the Stars retake the initiative. An early holding penalty put Dallas on the power play, and 15 seconds in, Bourque found Stankoven’s stick in the crease, restoring the Dallas lead.
That lead was short lived, however, as Columbus found themselves on their own power play. The penalty kill did its job, but seconds after the teams returned to 5×5, a body deflection found its way into the Stars net.
A few minutes later, Grushnikov – who looked good all tournament – coughed up the puck, which immediately turned into a Columbus breakaway. Poirier could get the five hole closed in time, and after dominating for the first 25 minutes, the Stars found themselves in a 3-2 hole.
Dallas continued to press, but nothing else found the net.
Shots – 16-10 Dallas
Goals – 3-2 Columbus
Period 3
Once again, the Stars jumped on Columbus early. Two minutes in, Gavin White found the back of the net on an unassisted shot, and a minute later, an Oskar Bäck backhand pass found Francesco Arcuri with space in the slot, putting Dallas up for good.
Matthew Seminoff scored a short handed goal two minutes later to take the pressure off. That score held up until, with under two minutes remaining, Chase Wheatcroft gobbled up a shot off the back wall for a greasy power play goal to end the scoring.
Shots – 7/9 Columbus
Goals – 6-3 Dallas
Thoughts
The tournament was a mixed bag for most of the Stars high end prospects. The Stankoven goal off of the Bourque feed showed off the high end talent. Bourque had the vision to find Stankoven sliding into the open back post. High hockey IQ stuff.
Poirier was the best goaltender in the tournament. Sunday against Columbus wasn’t quite on the same level as his win over Detroit in the opening game – but throughout, be was positionally sound, kept his rebounds under control, and made some highlight reel saves at critical moments.
Chase Wheatcroft led the team scoring with three goals. He was rewarded with top six time. That said, there wasn’t anything to his game that slapped you into thinking that he’s anything other than depth for the Texas Stars at this point.
Matthew Seminoff showed off his shot, and he didn’t look out of place playing with either Bourque or Stankoven. He still has a lot to prove, but for now, he’s a steal as a seventh round pick.
Defensively, Bichsel only played one game – but there was a lot to like (and a lot to learn about playing in tight spaces). Grushnikov was consistently better this year and White also showed flashes of an interesting game.
If you’re looking for somebody who came out of nowhere to impress (this would have been Blumel last year), look no further than Ben Zloty. He’s on an AHL contract after putting up big offensive numbers as a defender in the WHL last season, and he showed why in his two games of action. He’s nowhere near NHL ready, but he could find a regular role in Texas if he can hold up on the defensive end.
There were a handful of disappointments as well – keeping in mind that there need to be expectations of something in order to disappoint. Last year, Christian Kyrou was dynamic offensively, with some gaping holes in his defensive game. The defense is somewhat better, but he was pretty flat in the offensive zone throughout the tournament. Tristan Bertucci just seemed a step slow on both ends and he was never able to get to open space. That led to turnovers and not much else.
Neither Francesco Arcuri and Justin Ertel – both pretty high on the prospect list – showed much to pull them out of a fourth line role. Arcuri certainly pumped a bunch of rubber at the let – but with the exception of Bäck’s feed that put him on the doorstep, nothing looked dangerous.
With the prospect tournament over, its important to keep in mind that this is just a minor first step in most of these players finding a spot (or if they have a spot) in the Dallas organization. You just can’t read too much into it. Next up is training camp followed by the preseason where we’ll start to see a more comprehensive body of work.
Dallas, Columbus and Toronto all finished 2-1. Detroit brough some talent, so in a sense, the Red Wings have to be a bit disappointed with their 0-3 result. Especially giving up 20 goals in 3 games.