January has not been kind to the Dallas Stars, who before tonight had yet to win a game in 2024. The New Year’s Eve 8-1 blow out against the Chicago Blackhawks at home in the American Airlines Center was the last time the Stars have tasted victory, although they did manage to eke out a point against the Colorado Avalanche last Thursday.
Either way, a win tonight, especially a win against division rival Minnesota Wild, was crucial. And boy did they deliver.
With Jake Oettinger still out after December 15’s lower body injury, the Stars iced Matt Murray in his 4th NHL game after three last season.
First Period
The Stars recent struggles were very evident in the first period. Everything looked like a struggle. They couldn’t connect on passes, their zone entry was awful, they lost each other in the neutral zone. Throughout the first five minutes of play they had zero shots on goal while the Wild had 8, and then Nils Lundkvist sent the puck over the glass for their first of four penalties in the first period.
Luckily, while the Wild got more shots on goal, they didn’t score.
Then Craig Smith was assessed a penalty for high sticking against erstwhile Star Mats Zuccarello.
The Stars won a face off during the kill, carried the puck up ice, then Roope Hintz stole the puck in front of Marc-Andre Fleury.
Shortly after this, Tyler Seguin continued the conga line into the box with a tripping penalty, also against Zuccarello. The Stars were given their first man advantage opportunity when Matt Boldy held Mason Marchment and then they chose to take another penalty instead of score
The period ended with the Stars still killing off that penalty time.
Shots: Stars 4, Wild 12
Goals: Stars 1, Wild 0
Second Period
In terms of possession, the second period was much better than the first, even though five minutes in the Stars still hadn’t added to their shot count, they almost had Fleury with this little number.
Instead they only added to their penalty minutes with a Jason Robertson penalty.
Shots: Stars 12, Wild 21
Goals: Stars 1, Wild 0
Third Period
Early in the third, reactions all over the ice were that Tyler Seguin had scored, but the goal was initially waived off and play continued until the goal horn sounded. What was apparently not obvious to the ref on the ice was way more obvious to the situation room in Toronto.
Wyatt Johnston had the very weakest slashing call which was honestly fine because then Sam Steel stole the puck in the defensive zone, carried it up ice and found Radek Faksa alone in front of Fleury.
To top off the evening and truly highlight that bad reffing really does regress to a mean, Roope Hintz oversold a holding call on Ryan Hartman and Jason Roberston connected on a very lovely pass from Jamie Benn in front of the net.
Shots: Stars 20, Wild 23
Goals: Stars 4, Wild 0
TL; DR
The Stars prove a game can be both low event and high scoring. It wasn’t their prettiest win, but it was a win and Matt Murray’s first career shut out in his fourth career NHL game. Sometimes the Stars align, and that truly was a needed win.