(Photos weren’t posted, so here’s a pic of Jake in honor of the stellar performances that both our tendy’s have provided over the past few days)
The Dallas Stars visited the Delta Center for the FIRST time in franchise history to take on the Utah Hockey Club. Logan Stankoven slots in on the Matt Duchene line for recently-placed-on-IR Tyler Seguin. Matt Dumba is in. Casey DeSmith is in. I came into this game worried about the amount of games stacked up on the Stars in the past 5 days, and the schedule is not going to slow down on this upcoming road trip.
First Period.
A few minutes into the game, Alexander Kerfoot had a nifty move in on DeSmith, who successfully parried the shot off his left pad.
Still early in the first, we saw a REALLY nice play by the … you guesses it … Duchene line to feed Stankoven in front of the net. Duchene stole puck, chipped it to Mason Marchment, who immediately fed Stankoven in the middle – unfortunately, the iron is a tendy’s best friend, as the shot clanged off the right post.
Truly it is crazy how dangerous Mason Marchment is every time the puck is on his stick. The Stars had a few chances in the final few minutes of the period, but Utah stayed fairly compact around the net to limit pucks at Karel Vejmelka.
It was also very apparent that Utah prioritized getting pucks on net, potentially due to DeSmith’s forgettable last outing in Chicago. To his credit, he stood tall when called upon in the first period.
Stars PP – notably the “second unit” of Mush, Stankoven, Duchene, Evgenii Dadonov, and Miro Heiskanen started out for the first look of the night.
Unfortunately “dangerous” cuts both ways for Mush, as he was sent to the box for tripping 34 seconds into the PowerPlay. During the 4v4, Roope Hintz had a nice shot off of Vejmelka’s blocker, but no one could put away the free rebound.
Score: DAL 0 COL 0
Second Period.
Early in the second period, Jamie Benn held a bouncing puck up at center ice, and hit a drop pass to a streaking Nils Lundqvist who got a 1 on 1 look at Vejmelka. He faked a shot and tried to shoot around the netminder’s arm, to no avail.
Nils was flagged for a (soft) hooking call a few minutes later in the early second. Dylan Guenther rifled a shot in from the low slot and Casey DeSmith was able to parry away the chance as well as the extremely juicy rebound. Really really well done by DeSmith to keep the shutout chugging along here.
Mikhail Sergachev was then called for interference 20 seconds into the PP as we saw almost the reverse of the 4v4 situation of the 1st period.
Clayton Keller pulled Mavrik Bourque in what looked like interference, and received 2 minutes in the sin bin for it. After a whole lotta nothing from the Robo-Benn-Roope-Wyatt unit, the Duchene contingent came onto the ice for the second minute. After some cycling, Duchene passed from the point down to the low slot to Dadonov. Dadonov waiter, hoping to find a passing lane that would open up; however, Utah stayed compact. With the space he was provided, Dadanov snapped a shot towards the right post, and tucked the puck under the left shoulder of Vejmelka, who will be kicking himself for not covering it off. 1-0 good guys.
Marchment hit a *chefs kiss* cross zone pass around 8:55 to Stankoven, seemingly through multiple Utah sticks, but Stankoven was unable to finish the chance.
Colin Blackwell rocks. Feel like he always provides 1-2 plays a game while relentlessly forechecking. Could be extremely useful in the postseason (eyes emoji)
After a long shift, Thomas Harley was not able to track down a puck coming around the half wall, and Kerfoot received a chance directly in front of DeSmith. Miro covered off the potential cross-crease pass and DeSmith parried the attempt once again.
With 40 seconds left – Esa Lindell hit a trademark high flip, which Sam Steel tracked down. He turned, and found a cutting Jamie Benn, who slotted the second Stars goal of the period just before the buzzer. 2-0 good guys.
*Note* – Shots were in favor of Utah 22 to 14 at the end of the 2nd, but the Stars were able to funnel most of these shots to the outside, which allowed DeSmith to have eyes on most of what was coming at him. Really well done by Dallas.
Score: DAL 2 UTA 0
Third Period
Utah started the period on the front foot, continuing their intentional effort to get pucks on net
Maybe I’m just becoming a fanboy, but Lundkvist has absolutely cleaned up some of his defensive deficiencies of years prior. Really encouraged to see him tie up with forwards and not end up hanging his head and the buzzer sounding.
Keller received a pass across the neutral zone and skated in, giving a drop pass to Juuso Valimaki, who was not able to get a shot off.
After a long shift, a pass from Miro to Lyubushkin was mishandled and Utah retained possession. Schmaltz came off the bench on a change and Miro wasn’t able to pick him up fast enough and he ripped a shot off the right iron and in. 2-1.
Next few minutes were pretty chaotic both ways, with team trading chance for chance. I’ve never been one who loves the way that Pete DeBoer can seemingly “turtle” when holding a lead in the 3rd period, but I guess I’m not a coach either, so you win this round Pete. BUT – I appreciated that we continued to push up the ice, and didn’t resort to a full dump-and-chase strategy for the last few shifts
I’ll hand it to Utah – fans were loud in this one, especially in the 3rd (even though its no Mullet Arena!)
The Dallas defense bent but didn’t break, and were able to spring some counter rushes as a result of the mounting pressure. With 4:25 left, Utah got what was probably their best chance of the night where Clayton Keller backhanded a pass from the middle of the zone to Alexander Kerfoot in the low slot who BANGED a one timer. Good thing Casey DeSmith ate his WHEATIES this morning as he slid over perfectly and saved the slap shot.
Utah pulled Vejmelka with approximately 1:50 left, and Roope Hintz quickly gained possession, banking a shot at the open goal off the side wall, only to hit the post and receive an icing on the play.
In the last 30 seconds there were multiple loose pucks in front of the net, but the Defense and DeSmith stood tall. DeSmith looked like he had eyes on the puck the whole time. Jamie Benn won some clutch faceoffs in his own zone to ice the final 15 seconds. There were some shenanigans after the buzzer as Logan Stankoven (yep, read that right) threw a haymaker after some pushing and shoving.
FINAL SCORE: DAL 2 UTA 1
STARS WIN. Utah definitely kept us on our toes, but a stout performance from the defense, who was anchored by Casey DeSmith, gave Dallas the edge in this contest. I like what Utah has in terms of youth, but it looks like the quality of players such as Matt Duchene, Jamie Benn, and others was no match tonight.