Stars Win In New Jersey
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What a difference one week makes.
You play one team and lose leads of 1-0, 4-2, and 5-4 only to lose in overtime and then take on another team who spots you six goals before allow three. Offensively the product is good but the defense needed to step it up a tad.
Friday night all four lines for Coach Lindy Ruff came to play in New Jersey as the Dallas Stars gathered their second win in the Garden State since 2000.
“I thought it was as close to a four-line game as we’ve played,” Ruff said afterwards.
The previous two games Dallas would allow the opposition nine goals on 83 shots. That number was cut by 67% Friday.
Both the Devils and Stars came into play with identical 3-1-2 records. Dallas would get to 4-1-2 with a 3-2 victory by way of the shootout.
“That looked a lot like how we played last year,” Ruff said Friday. “We eliminated a lot of the mistakes. We got pucks out, put some pressure on in the neutral zone. We were a lot more diligent with assignments.”
Eric Gelinas at 5:31 of the first period gave New Jersey the
early 1-0 lead.
Second period at 4:28 Jamie Benn would light the lamp at 4:28 with assists by Jason Spezza and Tyler Seguin.
Tied at 1-apiece know that the aforementioned line has knocked out 21 points in their last ten periods of play.
Patrick Eaves gave Dallas the 2-1 at 15:48 of period two when his shot went between the glove and person of Cory Schneider.
Period three the came back to tie things at 2 after what looked like a shot from Damien Brunner that would ricochet off the skate of Kari Lehtonen but not before Patrick Elias had a hand pass to Brunner.
The play was not reviewable and the goal stood. As Lindy Ruff and his temperament go, so got the Stars. Just ask Jason Spezza.
“I think they’re looking at that stuff and it’d be nice with all the cameras if they can get those calls right, but I thought Lindy showing his composure makes us show our composure and you just gotta push forward and try to find a way to win,” Spezza said. “There’s no point in getting too upset about it, you’ve still got a game to play.”
And play Dallas did as both Spezza and Benn lit the lamp in the shootout while Kari Lehtonen shut out Michael Cammalleri and Jaromir Jagr. Both missed badly.
The shoout loss marks 18 straight that New Jersey has suffered. They were 0-13 lat season.
“We’ll just pick up and move on,” Devils coach Peter DeBoer said. “I’m not concerned about it. I know we’re going to win some shootouts, so we’ll take the point and move on to Ottawa.”
The Stars now take on the Islanders having won 4 out of five as the Devils currently are mired in an 0-2-2 funk.
In the win Lehtonen stopped 24 of 26 shots to earn the second star of the night.
Coach Ruff was very content.
“By far our best game overall,” Ruff said.
