Stars Dominate Blues, Win 4-1
And Jason Robertson extends his point streak.
The Dallas Stars visited the state of Missouri for their first game (this season) against long time division rival the St. Louis Blues. The Stars have been having a much better season than the Blues, who are currently outside of the playoff bubble.
Scott Wedgewood was a last minute decision for Dallas, he is in net tonight for Jake Oettinger, who was under the weather.
First Period
Listen, the first period was less exciting than a game between vision rivals really should be, but despite not leading on the scoresheet or in the shot count, Stars had a dominant first period.
Blues players got trapped down in their zone for long shifts while the Stars controlled the neutral zone. Joe Pavelski had an early ping on the goal post but neither team managed to score in the first.
Wedgewood did an excellent job controlling the puck and had an absolutely beautiful series of stops late in the first.
Scott Wedgewood Did pic.twitter.com/UxPSYnWc3G
— Robert Tiffin (@RobertTiffin) November 29, 2022
Scott Wedgewood, take a bow pic.twitter.com/R08PaTORHf
— Saad Yousuf (@SaadYousuf126) November 29, 2022
Shots: Stars 9, Blues 11
Goals: Stars 0, Blues 0
Second Period
Wyatt Johnston saved the game from being a scoreless snoozefest early in the second period. What started on the other end of the ice with a save from Joel Kiviranta ended up behind Jordan Binnington on the other end.
Joel Kiviranta saves a goal at one end. Wyatt Johnston (with a Jamie Benn screen) scores at the other. 1-0, Stars. pic.twitter.com/pwtkTOMETf
— Matthew DeFranks (@MDeFranks) November 29, 2022
A few minutes later, Nathan Walker picked a fight with Joel Hanley. There was no instigating incident, just one of those fights meant to inject some liveliness into the crowd.
A little guy with big heart. Nathan Walker fights the Stars' Joel Hanley and gets the crowd fired up at Enterprise Center. #stlblues
— Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW) November 29, 2022
TV: Bally Sports Midwest
Stream: https://t.co/BZ12oB67Gi pic.twitter.com/ufoOgWAWzU
It’s Joel Hanley’s first fight in the NHL.
The two teams traded penalties back and forth. The Blues did not manage to get a shot off on their man advantage opportunity and the Stars only had one shot that was saved by Binnington.
The Stars also excelled at the faceoff dot in the first and second periods, ending the second period with 72% faceoff wins.
Shots: Stars 17, Blues 19
Goals: Stars 1, Blues 0
Third Period
The third period was more of the previous two. Yes, spoilers, the Blues scored, but they were never really in the game. And anyway, the Stars scored first when Ty Dellandrea finished off a tic-tac-toe with Jamie Benn and Wyatt Johnston.
The setup! The goal! GORGEOUS!
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) November 29, 2022
📺: @BallySportsSW | #TexasHockey pic.twitter.com/ygvCLcRCYR
What were you doing at 19 years old? Wyatt Johnston is making sick passes for goals in the NHL pic.twitter.com/DfVpN2GKcs
— Saad Yousuf (@SaadYousuf126) November 29, 2022
The Blues goal came about five minutes later when Brandon Saad managed to tip the puck past Wedgewood, though this was the only moment he really looked human in the whole game.
Josh Leivo picks off Wedgewood's outlet and sets up Brandon Saad for the easy redirect tally, Blues within 1!#STLBlues pic.twitter.com/hsn22tP4Th
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) November 29, 2022
Then later Jason Robertson extended his goal streak to 17 games, maintained leadership of the goal scorers and is right up with Connor McDavid for points this season. And it was just a really pretty goal too.
Jason Robertson turns defense into offense for his 19th (!!!) goal of the year, Dallas back up 2!#TexasHockey pic.twitter.com/r828aidsgB
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) November 29, 2022
Miro Heiskanen, who lead the Stars in ice time tonight, scored the empty netter to cement the victory.
Shots: Stars 24, Blues 24
Goals: Stars 4, Blues 1
The Stars have a bit of a break this week and won’t play till Thursday night back in Dallas against the Anaheim Ducks. Puck drop will be at 7:30 pm CST.