Heading into the 2015-16 regular season, team defense and goaltending were the biggest question mark for a Dallas Stars team that boasts plenty of offensive firepower. The preseason did little to assuage those concerns.
New goaltending addition Antti Niemi emphatically answered the bell on opening night, playing brilliantly to post a 37-save shutout of the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 3-0 victory for the Stars at the American Airlines Center on Thursday evening. In addition turning back every assault by the dangerous Penguins' attack, Niemi even notched a pair of secondary assists on the first two goals.
Ales Hemsky, who had a disappointing and injury-marred first season with the Stars in 2014-15, set up the game's first goal and later scored one. The beneficiary of Hemsky's cross-ice feed on the opening goal was rookie Mattias Janmark. The 22-year-old Swede, who had a strong preseason to win a roster spot on head coach Lindy Ruff's squad, scored his first regular season goal in the NHL at just 1:39 of the first period.
On Hemsky's second-period power play goal, the forward took a breakout pass from defenseman Alex Goligoski and navigated through the neutral zone. Gaining the blueline after going around a flat footed Evgeny Malkin in the neutral zone, Hemsky used Penguins' defenseman Rob Scuderi as a screen as he fired the puck home from above the right circle at 5:42.
Dallas put up a picket fence on the score board, tallying once in each period while blanking Pittsburgh. In the third period, the Stars lost a would-be goal on a goaltender interference penalty against captain Jamie Benn for pushing a Penguins' defenseman into Marc-Andre Fleury. Undaunted, Benn later scored the final goal of the game by parking himself on the doorstep of Fleury's crease and deflect a Jason Spezza shot into the net at 12:39 of the final period. John Klingberg received the secondary assist.
While not entirely free of errors of commission and omission, the Stars' paid better attention to two-way play in the opener than they did for much of last year and the preseason. When there were mistakes, Niemi came out with momentum saves to restore the equilibrium. The Finn's stellar performance included seven saves on Pittsburgh power plays. The Stars were charged with 13 giveaways to eight for the Penguins.
Pittsburgh outshot Dallas for the game by a 37-24 margin and held the shot edge in all three periods but the Stars won where it ultimately matters; the shot attempts that land in the cash register.
Fleury had a statistically mediocre opener (21 saves on 24 shots) but could not be faulted on any of the Dallas goals. He had to move laterally in a hurry on Janmark's goal and could not get the pads squeezed together quite in time on the goal-scorer's quick shot release. On the Hemsky goal, Fleury was screened by his own defenseman. On Benn's goal, the Pittsburgh goalie not only had the Stars' captain's backside in his face, the puck was also re-directed with no time to react.
Sidney Crosby was held without a shot on goal in the opener. Malkin, who was partially responsible for loose coverage of Hemsky on his second-period line rush power play goal, also took a careless offensive-zone high sticking penalty against Goligoski in the third period moments after Crosby won a draw and Malkin put a backhanded shot attempt on Niemi's net. Malkin had four shots on the night.
Penguins' newcomer Phil Kessel made his Pittsburgh regular season debut. The former Maple Leafs sniper put a half-dozen shots on Niemi. In meantime, veteran offensive defenseman Kris Letang registered a game-high eight shots and led all players on both teams with 28:18 of ice time in the game.
The Stars went 2-for-5 on the power play in the opener. Pittsburgh was 0-for-3.
Ruff's team will now head to Denver to play the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night. The Stars will then have two nights off before hosting the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. The Pens are in Arizona on Saturday to play the Coyotes and then return to Pittsburgh for their home opener against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.