SCEVIOUR STRIKES FOR HAT TRICK IN PRESEASON WIN
It wasn't always pretty but the Dallas Stars improved their preseason record under new head coach Lindy Ruff with a 5-3 road win against the Colorado Avalanche last night. Battling for one of the Stars few open roster spots, Colton Sceviour made his case by notching a hat trick and an assist. Team captain Jamie Benn scored the other two goals for Dallas.
Kari Lehtonen turned back 26 of 29 shots to earn the win for Dallas. Gabriel Landeskog (power play), Brad Malone and Paul Stastny tallied for the Avalanche.
Lehtonen singlehandedly kept the Stars in the game in a scoreless first period. Dallas got outshot by a 10-1 margin in the opening stanza, getting outskated and generally outworked in all three zones. Things were so bad for Dallas in the first period that they had the worse of it on their own power plays. The Stars had a pair of first-period power plays to none for the Avs.
Play picked up considerably for the Stars in the second period. The team had a 17-7 shot edge over Colorado and, more importantly, a 4-1 advantage on the scoreboard.
Sceviour started the momentum rolling at 5:18, tipping home a shot by Kevin Connauton. Lane MacDermid earned the secondary assist. On the very next shift, Dallas built a 2-0 lead. Once again, Sceviour had a hand in the goal, setting up Benn. The Dallas captain fired a wrist shot home past Colorado goaltender Jean-Sabastien Giguere.
A mere 54 seconds after his first goal, Benn struck for another one. His brother, Jordie Benn, earned the lone assist on the Stars third goal in a span of 1:31.
Nearly three minutes after the second Benn goal, Sceviour tallied his own second marker of the game. He struck paydirt on a backhand shot that found the net. Travis Morin was credited with the only assist on the play. With Dallas now ahead 4-0, Colorado head coach Patrick Roy pulled Giguere (six saves on 10 shots) and sent Sami Aittokallio (15 saves on 15 shots) into the net.
One area that the Stars are going to have to clean up as they go into the regular season will be their play with the lead. Protecting leads was a big problem down the stretch last season and has been an issue thus far in the current preseason.
Last night, Colorado struck back for three unanswered goals to trim their deficit from 4-0 to 4-3 with nearly seven minutes remaining in regulation. The Avs could not produce a tying goal in this game but it's still an area the Stars need to address.
Landeskog's power play goal late in the second period got things started. Colorado followed it up by being the better team in the third period (including a 12-8 shot advantage) and generating mid-period goals by Malone and Stastny.
Sceviour sealed the win for Dallas and completed his hat trick with an empty-net goal with 1:40 remaining in the third period. Jordie Benn (plus-three, four blocked shots, two shots on goal in 20:11 of ice time) earned his second assist of the game.
The Stars and Avalanche will rematch in Dallas on Thursday. The Stars will conclude the exhibition schedule with a game in Oklahoma City against the Edmonton Oilers on Friday. The puck drops on the regular season on Oct. 3.
STARS LINEUP
Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Alex Chiasson
Ray Whitney - Cody Eakin - Valeri Nichushkin
Lane MacDermid - Travis Morin - Colton Sceviour
Ryan Garbutt - Chris Mueller - Matej Stransky
Brenden Dillon - Kevin Connauton
Jyrki Jokipakka - Alex Goligoski
Patrik Nemeth - Jordie Benn
Kari Lehtonen
[Dan Ellis]
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