Well, if you can’t go out on top, you might as well go out with a bang.
The Dallas Stars team finished the 2015 Traverse City Prospect Tournament on Tuesday afternoon with a dominating 7-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild.
The Stars had a hefty 4-0 lead after the first two periods and, unlike the previous two games, was able to hold onto that lead to secure the win. The two squads continued to trade goals in what was a feisty third period filled with penalties and even a fight at the final buzzer.
Oh, and Gemel Smith fought Guillaume Gelinas at the buzzer, making sure this tournament wasn’t completely fight free.
— Sean Shapiro (@seanshapiro) September 15, 2015
The offensive production was spread quite nicely throughout the match, with Emil Molin leading the way with two goals and an assist, while the following players each chipped in with two points: Mattias Janmark, Radek Faksa, Jason Dickinson, Gemel Smith, Julius Honka and Chase Witala. Brent Moran was given the chance to start in net and had a nice showing, stopping 21 out of 23 shots.
The full boxscore of the game can be found here. The lines looked like this:
Dallas Stars roster today vs. Minnesota at NHL Prospect Tournament in Traverse City. pic.twitter.com/e9gCzxZAhi
— Mark Stepneski (@StarsInsideEdge) September 15, 2015
Some final notes and long-distance observations about the Stars’ performance at the event:
- Janmark led the team in scoring this year, with six points in four games. As one of the oldest players on the team and as someone with a lot of professional experience from over in Sweden this sort of result should be expected, but still, it’s nice to see.
- Dickinson, Brett Pollock and Molin tied for the team lead in goals with three.
- Stephen Johns led the entire team in shots, with 14. Second place was Honka with 11. Apparently the team really liked to bomb shots from the blueline.
- Honka and Esa Lindell played together as a defensive pair in the final game and finished with a +3 rating. Could this Finnish duo become a regular pairing this year for the AHL’s Texas Stars?
- Faksa had some rust to shake off as this was his first hockey action since January, but he was still named the team’s captain for each of the three games that he played in, which says something about his leadership abilities off the ice.
- The Stars outshot their opponents in all four games.
- Relatedly, this was a particular rough tournament for the team’s two goaltenders, Philippe Desrosiers and Moran. The two combined for a 3.50 goals against average and a .853 save percentage.
- Full tournament stats for the team can be found here.
- Traverse City is a short tournament, so take all the results with a grain of salt, but it will still be interesting to see if players like Janmark, Dickinson, Honka, Johns and Lindell can carry over any momentum to the Dallas Stars’ main training camp, which begins this upcoming weekend./