Greg Pateryn welcomed his former team into his new city for this preseason matchup as Dallas looked for its second straight win and the Wild looked for their first win.
Dallas was the first one to put a goal up in the game early on as Miro Heiskanen recorded his first goal of the preseason. Heiskanen took a shot from the point that appeared to deflect off of the defenseman and right underneath Devan Dubnyk’s glove 5:31 into the first period.
Miro Heiskanen fires a one-timer for his first NHL preseason goal. Stars lead the Wild 1-0 after one period in Minnesota. #GoStars pic.twitter.com/MpsqfpLMGV
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) September 21, 2018
With 9:52 to go in the first, the Wild pick up the power-play on a rather strange Marc Methot penalty. What the refs saw as Methot holding the stick of Joel Eriksson Ek was actually just the stick getting caught on Anton Khudobin, but either way the Stars take the penalty and fortunately for Dallas, Minnesota can’t capitalize on the advantage. With 5:11 to go Mikko Koivu gets the call for slashing and heads to the box, although Dallas can’t strike and so the two penalties even out.
Heading into the second the Wild draw a tripping minor and through the penalty kill, Anton Khudobin has to say a quick thank you to the post gods. Minnesota looked to cash in some stellar opportunities to even the game out but the puck saw every bit of the post on each chance.
Khudobin got pulled about halfway through the second period, not from poor play yet Dallas had only scheduled to play the goalie a certain number of minutes and then let Colton Point take over between the pipes. While Khudobin was a perfect 14 shots saved on 14 shots, Point cannot say the same as Zach Parise was able to cash in a goal on a redirection from Koivu to tie the game late in the second.
On a back and forth third period that saw penalties from both sides, It was Dallas cashing in for the game-winning goal and then another one to put it all away. Denis Gurianov found Justin Dowling with 4:06 remaining to take the 2-1 lead over the Wild. And then it was Radek Faksa putting in the empty-netter with 28 seconds remaining to drive the nail in the coffin for Minnesota who is still looking for their first win in this preseason.
Denis Gurianov gets it to the net and Justin Dowling cleans up for the game-winning goal in Minnesota. #GoStars pic.twitter.com/vLw0CEpgzc
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) September 21, 2018
Radek Faksa finds the empty net from the red line to end it and the Stars get their second preseason win. #GoStars pic.twitter.com/qylzk0R6z9
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) September 21, 2018
Dallas is now 2-0 in the preseason and starting to take form with Jim Montgomery’s new system as Dallas will head back home to take on the Florida Panthers on Saturday, September 22 at 7:00 pm CST.