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Stars Lead In a Dance With the Devil(s)

Posted on by Ann Atkinson

The road trip continues and tonight the Dallas Stars visited the Garden State and the New Jersey Devils. Both teams were on the road just last night, both losses, though the Devils had a much shorter trip to make. The Devils lost in overtime to the New York Rangers while the Stars were in Pittsburgh visiting Sidney Crosby.

Former head coach for the Stars, Lindy Ruff, has had an up and down season with the Devils. After losing the first two games of the season to the Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings, the home crowd booed and chanted “Fire Lindy.” Safe to say, the season has picked up since then and the boos have definitely turned to cheers with their position as first in the Metropolitan division and second overall in the East.

First Period

The first period was played like they were two teams on the second half of a back to back. Only 12 shots between the two teams, one penalty against the Devils upon which the Stars got zero shots with the man-advantage.

A nail biter of a sprawling save for Scott Wedgewood.

You want something entertaining? Watch this instead:

Shots: Stars 5, Devils 7
Goals: Stars 0, Devils 0

Second Period

Everything that the first period wasn’t, the second period was. Exciting and containing goals, most especially.

The Devils had some big chances down at the Stars end of the ice that both Wedgewood and Ryan Suter kept out of the goal.

And then shortly after Ty Dellandrea scored off a deflection.

It just ended up being a very wild minute of hockey.

Two minutes later, Miles Wood scored on a tip in on a slap shot from Kevin Bahl at the top of the zone.

The second period is also when a lot of Stars fans started googling who could possibly be in net for the Devils, especially after stopping Luke Glendening’s breakaway and then stoning Joel Kiviranta on the rebound.

Miro Heiskanen went to the box for “tripping” Nico Hischier but the Devils had already scored their one goal.

And then Roope Hintz got the go-ahead goal in literally the last second of play.

Shots: Stars 19, Devils 26
Goals: Stars 2, Devils 1

Third Period

The third period was more of the first period until the Devils pulled their goalie. Although with slightly more shots on goal.

Mason Marchment went to the box for high sticking, and that was the end of the penalties. Just one per period, which is something the Stars have struggled with, so it’s nice to keep them out of the box some.

The Stars benefited from a quick whistle on a loose puck and in protest the Devils knocked it into the net after the whistle, which resulted in a dust up in front of the net but no penalties.

Ruff pulled Akira Schmid with 2:18 to go in the third, which turned out to be the nail in the Devils’ coffin as both Esa Lindell and Marchment scored empty netters. Also, Radek Faksa sacrificed the body to keep the puck out of the Stars’ goal and was still in discomfort on the bench after the final buzzer.

Shots: Stars 31, Devils 36
Goals: Stars 4, Devils 1

The Stars will continue their road trip in the capital against the Washington Capitals Thursday, December 15. Puck drop will be an early one for Stars fans, 6 pm CST.

Talking Points