Putting forth their most complete 60-minute effort of the young season to date, the Dallas Stars earned a 4-2 victory against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night at the American Airlines Center. The Stars improved their first-week record to 1-2-0.
After scoring only one even strength goal over the first two games, a five-on-five goal by defenseman John Klingberg (second goal of the season) opened the scoring midway through the first period. The Stars never trailed thereafter. Tyler Seguin's second power play tally of the campaign (and captain Jamie Benn's 300th career NHL assist), scored in the final minute of the opening period, sent the Stars to intermission with a 2-0 lead and 11-6 shot advantage from a strong opening 20 minutes.
The Stars were also the significantly more effective puck-possession team in the second period. However, a Justin Abdelkader power play marker early in the stanza temporarily cut the gap back to one goal. At the 8:05 mark, Dallas restored its two-goal lead at 3-1.
Last season, one of the most underrated elements of the Stars' struggles was the loss of two-way forward Mattias Janmark for the entire season. He had been a versatile all-around performer as well as supporting offensive contributor during the 2015-16 season and the Stars did not have a comparable replacement last year. On Tuesday, Janmark scored the goal that made it 3-1 and later chipped in an assist.
The Stars outshot the Red Wings in the second period by a 16-9 margin; 27-15 through the opening 40 minutes.
Dallas nursed the two-goal lead through much of the third period before Moe Mantha drew the Red Wings back within 3-2 with 4:49 left on the clock. Martin Hanzal iced the win with an empty netter in the final three seconds for a 4-2 final and his first goal as a Star. Third period shots were 10-6 in Detroit's favor; 33-25 overall to Dallas' advantage.
Ben Bishop earned his first win as a Star, stopping 23 of 25 shots. Petr Marzek took the loss for Detroit, denying 28 of 31 shots before being pulled for an extra attacker prior to the Hanzal empty net goal.
Ken Hitchcock's Stars return to action on Thursday, visiting Peter Laviolette's Nashville Predators. Game time will be 7 p.m. CDT.