Photo Credit : Tom Pennington / Getty Images
Dallas extended its victory streak over the Arizona Coyotes on home ice to 17-0-1 with tonight’s 4-3 overtime victory. The Stars are on a four-game win-streak with the victory and still sit comfortably atop the Central division, five points ahead of the Colorado Avalanche.
The Stars started the first period much the way they had in the last two games of last week’s road trip that padded the team’s lead in the division standings, but the score didn’t show it.
As has been a bit of a trend for Stars opponents lately, Arizona fell into an early penalty kill just 46 seconds into the game. Arizona defenseman Juuso Valimaki was called for closing his hand on the puck as he attempted to keep it out of the Coyotes zone. But the Stars, who scored five power play goals on Sunday against Minnesota, were held off on the first man advantage.
Dallas led the Coyotes in shots on goal for nearly the entire period, but it would only take one shot to put the Coyotes on the board first. Five and a half minutes into the period, Stars captain Jamie Benn attempted a backward pass to defenseman Miro Heiskanen to clear the puck from along the boards in the Stars zone. The puck took a bounce off the skate of Arizona right wing Clayton Keller and away from Heiskanen who couldn’t control it. Center Barrett Hayton picked up the bounce and passed it back to Keller who had moved to the front of the net and Keller sent it puck past Stars goalie Jake Oettinger.
Defenseman Esa Lindell scored the Stars tying goal with just over two minutes left in the period, though. Dallas defenseman Nils Lundkvist skated the puck into the Coyotes zone with forwards Jason Robertson and Joe Pavelski alongside him, and Lindell lagging behind just slightly. When Lundkvist reached the top of the circle to Coyotes goalie Karel Vajmelka’s left, he passed the puck to Lindell in the middle of the zone who sent it low to the net and through the legs of Vajmelka.
With 36.5 seconds left in the period, Stars left wing Mason Marchment was called for hooking on Hayton, sending Dallas to the penalty kill for the end of the period and into the second.
The Stars killed off the penalty to start the second period, and halfway through the second, would get the advantage back when Valimaki hooked Stars center Radek Faksa in front of the net.
Ten seconds into the power play, Dallas center Roope Hintz scored the first power play goal on home ice this season and gave the Stars their first lead of the night. Hintz picked up a rebound in front of the net and passed it to Heiskanen at the blue line. Heiskanen turned to look toward Robertson as he passed the puck to Hintz. Hintz took the pass and sent it straight to the net.
Dallas had a massive opportunity to add to the night’s lead with just under five minutes left in the period after Arizona took two tripping penalties within minutes of each other. Arizona center Nick Schmaltz took the first penalty in the faceoff circle, sending Heiskanen to the ice. 51 seconds later, Coyotes defenseman Matt Dumba tripped Hintz, giving the Stars a 1:09-long 5-on-3 power play advantage, but the Stars couldn’t get the puck past Vajmelka.
Four minutes into the final frame, Dallas defenseman Jani Hakanpää took a shot from the blue line that struck Valimaki in the face just in front of the Arizona net. Valimaki instantly left the ice very visibly injured and bleeding.
Just under halfway through the period, Dallas defenseman Ryan Suter took an interference penalty against Heyton, sending the Stars to the penalty kill for only the second time in the game. With 20 seconds left in the Arizona power play, Coyotes left wing Jason Zucker took a cross-ice pass from left wing Matias Maccelli and sent the puck past Oettinger and into the net, tying the game and giving both teams a power play goal on the night.
With five and a half minutes left in the game, the Coyotes would regain the lead off a breakaway goal by left wing Lawson Crouse. Crouse took a pass from Arizona defenseman Sean Durzi and slid the puck around the stick of Oettinger as he attempted a poke check on Crouse.
Two minutes later, Dallas center Tyler Seguin responded with a one-on-one shot against Vajmelka. Seguin took a go-ahead pass from center Matt Duchene from inside the Dallas zone and tied the game back up at three.
With two seconds left, Pavelski nearly had the game-winner, but found the crossbar behind Vajmelka, sending the game to three-on-three overtime.
Only 42 seconds into the extra frame, the Stars nabbed the overtime win. Heiskanen took control of the puck in neutral ice and passed it to Seguin as he left the Stars zone. Seguin skated it into the Coyotes zone with Duchene trailing just behind. Seguin held the puck until he reached the bottom of the right circle where he passed it to Duchene who tapped it into an open net in front of him. It was Duchene’s 11th career overtime win, his first with Dallas, and his third game-winning goal this season.
The Stars return to American Airlines Center on Saturday, continuing the home stand with a matchup against the Colorado Avalanche.
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