It was a long game that finally ended in a shootout, with the Dallas Stars prevailing in the fourth round of the shootout thanks to the winning goal from Ales Hemsky.
The Stars began the game in hot fashion, with Patrick Eaves getting the Stars on the board with a nifty power play goal in a period where the Stars controlled most of the play. Kevin Connauton extended the lead for the Stars just four minutes later when Alex Goligoski threw the puck into the slot and Connauton was able to redirect the rebound past Dan Ellis.
Jack Campbell stopped all 11 shots he faced in just over 31 minutes of action in the game, but things would start to break down for Dallas once Jussi Rynnas got into net for the Stars. The Panthers were stronger and stronger as the game progressed and the Stars were victimized by shots from Dave Bolland and Shane O’ Brien, who both scored from near the blue line on Rynnas in the second period.
The Panthers would take the lead on another long shot, a Brandon Pirri blast off the faceoff that gave Florida a 3-2 lead early in the third period.
The Stars took some momentum back thanks to a solid penalty kill that included a lengthy 5-on-3 advantage for Florida, with the Stars pushing the pace up ice once more when the game returned to even strength. Tyler Seguin would hook up with Goligoski to tie the game for the Stars when Seguin deked around the defense and found the Dallas defenseman wide open in front of the net for the easy goal.
The Stars forced the game to overtime, where they controlled much of the 4-on-4 play. With no winner in the extra time, Hemsky provided the lone goal in four rounds of the shootout, and the Stars secured the comeback win.
It was a penalty-fest throughout, with the Panthers going 1-for-8 on the power play and the Stars showing some pretty decent penalty killing from Radek Faksa, Curtis McKenzie, Travis Morin and, of course, Jamie Benn.
Not much to really observe from this game — especially considering the difficulty of drawing opinions from watching the jumbotron feed — but several players that had big games on Monday continued to stand out. Faksa, McKenzie and Jyrki Jokipakka again had good games, while Kevin Connauton also was involved offensively for most of the night.
The multiple goals from distance are certainly concerning, especially since it was the first shaky performance of the preseason for a Stars goaltender, although Rynnas certainly looked stronger as the game progressed. The Stars had not exactly put a high volume of shots on net through the preseason so far, until they finally turned up the heat with 12 shots in the third period and 8 shots in overtime.
The Stars now travel to Tampa Bay to take on the Lightning on Friday night.