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Stars Defeat Winless Arizona, 3-1 |
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It was no blowout but the Dallas Stars did what they needed to do against the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday night, grinding out a 3-1 win at the American Airlines Center. Ken Hitchcock's Stars evened their season ledger at 3-3-0 (3-1-0 at home) while Rick Tocchet's winless Coyotes fell to 0-5-1.
Radek Faksa provided a 1-0 lead for Dallas at 5:17 of the first period, following up a Mattias Janmark wraparound attempt with a goal off the rebound. Dallas built a 2-0 lead as defenseman Dan Hamhuis pinched into the left circle to accept a pass-out from Tyler Pitlick and snap a shot home at 10:48 of the second period. Faksa drew a secondary assist.
Arizona drew back within a goal less than four minutes later. With Dallas leading in shots at the time, 23-9, former Stars defenseman Jason Demers trailed a Coyotes' rush and used John Klingberg as a screen on a long-side shot that beat Ben Bishop over his glove. Max Domi and Anthony Duclair got the assists.
Arizona, down by only a goal now, went on to outshoot the Stars by a 15-9 margin the third period. The Coyotes could not find an equalizer, however, and Alexander Radulov iced the game with a backhanded empty netter at 19:08 of the third period. Tyler Seguin and Hamhuis received the assists.
Ben Bishop stopped 27 of 28 shots in goal to earn the win for Dallas. Making his NHL debut, Adin Hill took second-star honors in a losing cause with 31 saves on 33 shots.
The Stars went 0-for-1 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. There was one fight in the game, as veteran defenseman Luke Schenn dropped the gloves with Stars agitator Antoine Roussel in the opening 90 seconds of the game.
Tuesday's game was the front end of a home-and-home matchup between the teams. The clubs will rematch in Glendale, AZ, on Thursday night.
Dallas Stars Blogger • 
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