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Star Gazing: Dallas Downs Canucks By a Football Score |
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Entering the 2014-15 season, the Dallas Stars held the promise of being one of the NHL's most potent offensive teams. They have not disappointed. Through the first six games of the regular season, the Stars are tied for the Western Conference lead with 21 goals scored to date.
Last night at the American Airlines Center, the Stars laid a six-spot on the Vancouver Canucks, roaring out to a 5-0 lead in the first 21:17 of play. Thereafter, the Stars went into cruise control mode and went on to defeat the Canucks by a 6-3 count. Five of the six Dallas goals came at even strength.
In the meantime, Kari Lehtonen enjoyed a strong bounceback game from a subpar performance in Saturday's 6-5 overtime loss. The big Finn authored numerous outstanding saves en route to turning back 43 of 46 shots (including a half-dozen shorthanded attempts by the Canucks). Otherwise, this game could have gone the way of Saturday's game against Philadelphia.
Five different Stars players enjoyed multi-point nights. Erik Cole notched power play and even strength goals. Ryan Garbutt (one goal, one assist), Tyler Seguin (one goal, one assist), Jamie Benn (one goal, one assist) and Cody Eakin also scored individual tallies for the Stars. Shawn Horcoff earned a pair of assists. Antoine Roussel, Trevor Daley, Kevin Connauton, Jason Spezza, Jordie Benn and Brenden Dillon chipped in one assist apiece.
Dallas roared out to a 3-0 lead in the first period. Garbutt opened the scoring at 4:08 on a line rush own-goal tally. Garbutt's attempted pass for Cody Eakin was instead deflected into the net by Alexandre Burrows.
The 1-0 score held until 17:46 when the goals started to come fast and furious for Dallas. Cole kicked things off by taking a cross-ice pass from Jordie Benn high in the offensive zone, skating into the left slot and beating Ryan Miller high to the glove side for a power play goal.
With 43 seconds remaining before the first intermission, Seguin extended the lead to 3-0. Spezza won a faceoff outside the defensive blueline back to Connauton. Team captain Benn received the puck in stride and broke in on a line rush. Benn went behind the net and attempted a wraparound but the puck bounced away directly to Seguin at the bottom of the right circle. The NHL's First-Star from last week snapped a shot past Miller.
The barrage continued right after intermission. At the 46-second mark of the middle stanza, Jamie Benn made it a 4-0 game off a pass from Seguin. A harmless looking shot from the right side off a rush up the ice found its way into the long side of the net.
At 1:17 of the second period, the Stars made it a 5-0 game. Garbutt stripped Dan Hamhuis of the puck at the Dallas defensive blueline and went in a breakaway against Miller. The veteran goalie made the save but Garbutt regained control of the puck on the rebound. With no Canucks forwards backchecking, Eakin skated all alone down the slot to receive a pass and beat Miller from point blank range.
Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins switched goaltenders at this point, sending in Eddie Läck for the remainder of the game. Miller finished with just eight saves on 13 shots. Läck went on to stop 14 of 15 shots.
The game was already out of hand for the Canucks by this point. However, Vancouver would get the bulk of the chances over the remaining 38-plus minutes of the game. The Canucks outshot the Stars by a combined 34-18 margin in the second and third periods.
Cole sandwiched his second goal of the game around second period tallies by Vancouver's Radim Vrbata and Zack Kassian. In the third period, Jannik Hansen's first goal of the season cut Dallas' final margin of victory to the football score of 6-3.
The Stars are idle for the next two nights. On Friday, the team opens a two-night road trip with back-to-back games against the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders.
Dallas Stars Blogger • 
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