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The Dallas Stars moved to 3-0 in the preseason after scoring five straight goals in a 5-2 win against the Minnesota Wild at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul.
Nothin’ but Rossi
This was not the most entertaining first period. Dallas had all five shots until late in the frame, then everything happened the other way in a 10-second span.
BUT, before that, Nathan Bastian looked good, finishing a couple of hits and creating four of the five scoring chances for Dallas. A shot from Tristan Bertucci also hit a post.
Casey DeSmith’s new dinosaur mask looked clean.
Speaking of, DeSmith actually told me that he used that design for his daughter, who loves dinosaurs. But when he first tried to show it to her, she was too afraid of him in his goalie gear, so she wouldn’t even look at the mask. He said his daughter likes to add “Rex” to the name of every dinosaur. “Brachiosaurus Rex” is my favorite. Didn’t think you’d read that in my game story tonight, did ya?
In that aforementioned 10-second span, Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi — two-thirds of Minnesota’s top line — combined to put the Wild up 2-0.
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First, Boldy made a nice pivot move behind the net to lose coverage and get a pass out front. The pass bounced around a bit before Rossi buried it from the low slot. The coverage was there for Dallas. They had five skaters right around the top of the crease.
But they forgot the actual defending part, and it cost them.
Some questionable defending & a couple young Stars strike
The second period was mostly filled with some awful defending from Dallas. The number of times the Stars left Wild skaters wide open in the slot was certainly a number.
Off the rush was even worse. Nearly every time Minnesota carried into the zone, Dallas stared daggers at the puck and forgot about everybody else. DeSmith either had to make a save, the Wild fumbled the puck and couldn’t get a shot off, or they made too many passes and overthought it.
Somehow, none of those breakdowns cost Dallas. And even more somehow, the Stars actually cut into the Minnesota lead.
This is such a good play from Mavrik Bourque. Exactly the type of play Dallas needs him to make. Bourque did a good job turning back away from pressure, drawing two defenders to him, then slipping a pass to Wyatt Johnston coming down the slot. Johnston did what he does in that area and put it upstairs to make it 2-1.
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Are we going to overtime again?
For real, are we going to overtime again?
Since Dallas shuffled its lines, the top trio has two goals.
Well, Johnston has two goals, and the newcomer Justin Hryckowian wasn’t even on the ice for the first and didn’t touch the puck on the second. But still worth noting (yes, I am hinting at something here). Here are the lines Dallas shifted to in the second period.
While the first goal was a lot of Bourque and some of Johnston, the second was all No. 53.
While I waited for the third consecutive preseason overtime for Dallas, Hryckowian and the Stars top line had something else in mind.
Just after another dull power play, Johnston worked hard to cause havoc at the Minnesota blue line. As the puck got into the corner, Johnston won a battle and chipped it out in front to Hryckowian. The rookie showed great patience and made a slick move to the backhand to slip the puck five-hole and give Dallas its first lead.
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I really like Hyrckowian’s game. He has plenty of growth still ahead of him, of course. But he plays with speed, he has some edge, and he works very hard. He works hard at practice too, often doing drills while the rest of the team skates around warming up. Oh, and he played college hockey too (Northeastern)… So I’m sold. And he has himself a massive opportunity after the injury to Jamie Benn.
Bourque added a power-play goal to put the game away. How good has Bourque been in the preseason? Loading up the points and playing with confidence. All good signs.
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