The Dallas Stars took on the Seattle Kraken in an early season back-to-back game at home. Casey DeSmith got the start after Jake Oettinger came up big yesterday with a shutout in the first half of the back-to-back set.
Still no Mavrik Bourque, but the belief is that he will be an option on Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks.
Let’s jump in to the recap:
First Period
Tyler Seguin, Mason Marchment, and Matt Duchene took the opening draw for the Stars with Esa Lindell and Nils Lundkvist together on a defensive pair to kick off the game.
Due to the Matt Dumba injury last night the D-pairings got shuffled around. This meant Thomas Harley and Miro Heiskanen were reunited while the third pair consisted entirely of new blood to the Stars in Brendan Smith and Ilya Lyubushkin.
Six minutes into the game Mason Marchment had a prime opportunity to open the scoring when he rang a shot off the post from in tight before getting welcomed to the Kraken’s net front with open harms by several Ryker Evans’ cross checks. Fortunately a penalty was eventually called on Evans, but unfortunately Marchment chose frontier justice and slashed Evans while the Stars had the delayed penalty negating the temporary advantage and making it 4-on-4.
4-on-4 would not last long as the Stars were called for a tripping penalty that put the Kraken on a power play with the 4-on-3 advantage. The Stars penalty kill held strong and killed off the first penalty kill of the night.
Three minutes later in the period, the Stars would get their own power play after Jaden Schwartz got a penalty for high-sticking Brendan Smith.
The first power play unit spent most of their time with back and forth perimeter passing and a couple long distance shot attempts that caused momentary chaos but did not hit the net. The second unit ran the power play through Matt Duchene at the bumper position along the boards and generated a cross ice pass to Logan Stankoven that broke the coverage and generated a quality shot attempt at least.
Less than a minute after the power play ended, the Stars’ fourth line opened the scoring after Colin Blackwell found Sam Steel in front of the net with his stick down and got the pass through to Steel who slammed the puck under Philipp Grubauer and into the net to pick up his first goal of the year and the first fourth line goal of the year three games in.
Top marks to Thomas Harley on reading the clear attempt by the Kraken and making the play at the blue line to keep the puck in the zone and find Blackwell.
Just thirteen seconds later Wyatt Johnston also picked up his first goal of the season after Jamie Benn charged into the Kraken’s zone and dropped a pass to Johnston before taking two Kraken defenders with him to the net. This left Wyatt “Earp” Johnston with all the time in the world to snipe a shot from the right face-off dot that went up high far-side on Grubauer to make it a quick 2-0 advantage for the Stars.
“Fast is fine, but accuracy is final. You must learn to be slow in a hurry.”
― Wyatt Earp
The genesis of this scoring play was the puck control by Logan Stankoven to corral the chest level pass from Lyubushkin near his defensive zone and get the puck to Jamie Benn in transition.
After a hectic end to the first period, the Stars would lead 2-0.
Second Period
Mason Marchment once again found himself as a chaotic catalyst in the game and went to the net and had a good chance before he got called for tripping a Kraken player immediately after. Mush’s game impact volitility reminds me of Alexander Radulov. Sometimes the more things change the more they stay the same.
Soon after killing off the Marchment penalty, Jason Robertson would draw a hooking penalty after breaking into the Kraken’s zone with Roope Hintz nearly midway through the second period.
The Stars first unit once again did not generate much in terms of penetration and movement on their minute and a half of time on the job. It’s only the third game of the season, but I’m not liking how passive the first unit is playing.
With not much action heading his way for much of the game so far, Casey DeSmith stepped up when the Stars D faltered midway through the second period, and made some good saves to sustain the 2-0 lead. DeSmith may only be 2 inches shorter than Wedgewood, but he seemed smaller and more athletic in his positioning in comparison. Khudobin-esque perhaps.
The second period was largely uneventful despite Seattle’s expected pushback. Bodes well for the Stars’ chances in the third to maintain their 2-0 lead.
Third Period
Before I forget let me say I’m in love with the music Victory+ uses in between commercials and the game. Also the countdown video before the stream starts is incredible too.
Back to the game – the Stars started the third period on the PK after Dadonov was called for a high sticking penalty at the very end of the second period.
The penalty kill held strong and after the early period kill is now 9/10 on the season.
Some back and forth play by both teams defined the first half of the third period.
Matt Duchene sent a backhand clearing pass from deep in his zone that found Tyler Seguin cherry picking at the Kraken’s blue line and Seguin walked in all alone on Grubaur. Tyler dusted off the puck a couple times before going forehand-backhand in close, but Grubauer’s blocker kept it a 2-0 game.
Two minutes later right before midway through the third period, Jason Robertson got called for holding. The Kraken finally had a dangerous look on the power play when a board battle turned into an in-tight 2v1 look for the Kraken, but Jared McCann sent it wide. Easily the most dangerous look for the Kraken all night and luckily they failed to get a shot on goal.
Marchment got his turn at the breakaway event, when he came in all alone on Grubauer and sent a forehand shot that Grubauer swatted aside with his blocker. It’s possible that if Gru used his blocker on every shot that he’d be unbeatable. It’s a little unconventional, but so is tying over $10M for the next 2 years to a mediocre goalie tandem.
With 4 minutes and 45 seconds left in the third period, the Stars would draw a power play, and this time the second unit composed of Duchene, Marchment, Seguin, Stankoven, and Heiskanen spent most of the time on the ice. They looked significantly better and had two good looks due to some quick puck movement before the first unit spent the next 30 seconds on the job. Steve Spott opted to go with a variation of the 2nd unit with the last 30 seconds of the power with Harley replacing Stankoven. They once again had solid, deliberate puck movement that led to a prime chance for Seguin in the slot that just hit the glass above the net.
With less than three minutes left in the game after the failed power play, the Stars battened down the hatches and braced for the Kraken’s final attack as they retracted the goalie and grew a sixth dangerous tentacle instead.
With the shutout on the line and potentially the game, Casey DeSmith held his own as the Kraken’s pressure mounted in the closing minutes of the game and gave the Stars the win and back-to-back shutouts in back-to-back games. The Stars defense deserves credit for reducing much of the Kraken’s attack at first, but the tides turned against them in the third and DeSmith was like an ice cooler you might cling to if you ever got stranded at sea by a hurricane – he kept them afloat.
Quick hits:
- Besides the obvious contribution of a goal, the 4th line also had a strong defensive play by Oskar Bäck in the first period to turn a 2v1 into a 2v2 and eventually break up the play.
- Wyatt Johnston 1 – Matty Beniers 0
- Nils Lundkvist once again showed some physical play in his defensive game around the net and by the boards. Being tough to play against might be a superficial quality of a defensemen compared to other tangible metrics, but it might help with the perceived flaws around Nils’ game and whether the coaching staff can trust he can hold his own in the playoffs.
- Hopefully I can figure out how to add videos and other content to my recap residency here at DBD, but for now all I have are words.
The Stars continue their mini home stand and host the San Jose Sharks at 7 PM central on Tuesday, October 15th.