The Carolina Hurricanes vastly outplayed the Dallas Stars Thursday night. They outshot Dallas 47-15, with the Stars going on two different 10+ min stretches without a shot on net. By all means, the Stars should have lost. Yet they somehow ended up winning 4-3 in the shootout.
All hail Scott Wedgewood, our lord and master.
Making his first start for Dallas, the new backup set a franchise record for most saves made in their team debut. Wedgewood looked incredible as the Stars hung him out to dry, making one incredible stop after another. The Hurricanes took the lead only twice, and each time Roope Hintz managed to tie things up on the other end of the ice within a minute.
It’s not a recipe for success, but the Stars made out like bandits with two points. The Stars will look to extend their wins streak to four games when they take the Vancouver Canucks on at home this Saturday at 6:00 PM CT.
First Period
The Carolina Hurricanes tested Scott Wedgewood early, unleashing a flurry of shots in the first couple of minutes. Jason Robertson would get the Stars’ first scoring chance a couple minutes later, but he was unable to sneak the puck behind Frederik Andersen’s skate.
Beyond that, however, possession was heavily skewered in Carolina’s favor, the Hurricanes peppering Wedgewood while spending the majority of ice time in the offensive zone. A roughing by Andrei Svechnikov on Tyler Seguin, but they managed only two shots, both of which were blocked.
The rest of the period was more of the same, with more than 11 minutes between the Stars’ second and third shots on goal. But Wedgewood was a brick wall, somehow keeping things scoreless after twenty.
Score: Dallas 0, Carolina 0
Shots: Dallas 4, Carolina 18
Second Period
After such a disastrous first period, perhaps it was inevitable that Jamie Benn scored within the first thirty seconds thanks to a deflection off of Ian Cole’s stick:
That’ll do!
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— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) March 25, 2022
A couple minutes later, we saw a slew of penalties — Vladislav elbowed Brandon Pesce, who then proceeded to jump him in retaliation. That resulted in fighting majors for both, but also an offsetting instigator penalty for Pesce, keeping us at 5-on-5, and also a misconduct for Pesce.
Regardless, the Hurricanes continued to vastly outplay the Stars, ultimately resulting in a Nino Niederreiter goal to tie things up. Dallas got a couple shots off in retaliation, but that was more or less all their offense for the remainder of the period — even when Vincent Trocheck took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty with less than a minute to go, the Stars didn’t manage another shot on goal.
Score: Dallas 1, Carolina 1
Shots: Dallas 9, Carolina 34
Third Period
To no one’s surprise, Dallas did finished their power play without a shot on goal. Shortly after it expired, Alexander Radulov took a delay of game penalty, and Trocheck converted just a minute into the power play to take the lead for Carolina.
But then Roope Hintz came to (sort of) save the day, scoring exactly 60 seconds later as he lasered one past Andersen:
Hip, hip, _____!
📺: @ESPN | #TexasHockey pic.twitter.com/HAutHs18cW
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) March 25, 2022
The next several minutes were largely uneventful, although Dallas did manage a couple more shots. Then Jamie Benn took a hooking minor, putting the Hurricanes back on the power play. The Stars technically killed it, but Niederreiter scored his second of the night just seconds after it expired.
Thankfully for Dallas, Roope Hintz delivered once more, this time taking only taking 59 seconds to tie things up:
Things got even crazier when Michael Raffl landed a breakaway, earning a penalty shot after getting hooked. Unfortunately, Andersen gloved it to prevent Dallas from taking a late lead. Instead, time ultimately extended and we headed to overtime… somehow.
Score: Dallas 3, Carolina 3
Shots: Dallas 15, Carolina 43
Overtime
Dallas began 3-on-3 with possession, but weren’t able to do anything with it. After which, we picked up right where we left off, with Hurricanes dominating and Wedgewood stopping everything that came his way. But then, with a little more than half a minute left, Denis Gurianov was tripped on a breakaway, giving Dallas a 4-on-3 to finish the game…
…and then didn’t get a shot off.
Score: Dallas 3, Carolina 3
Shots: Dallas 15, Carolina 47
Shootout
Trocheck: ❌
Seguin: ✅
Svechnikov: ❌
Robertson: ❌
DeAngelo: ❌
Final Score: Dallas 4, Carolina 3