Dallas Stars earn fourth win against Florida Panthers in Overtime 4-3 -NHL Preseason Update
Dallas Stars showed another great performance after their recent shutout by Colorado Avalanche by winning their fourth match of the 2011 National Hockey League (NHL) preseason against Florida Panthers, 4-3, in overtime on Tuesday, September 27.
Even though Florida outshot Dallas, 46-26, Stars goalie, Kari Lehtonen, managed to block nearly all of the shots that had him scrambling all around the place.
“Unbelievable”, Stars coach, Glen Gulutzan, said of Lehtonen’s 43 of 46 shots blocked performance. “He was the reason we came out of here with a win. I don’t how many shots there were in the third. He was the difference in the game, especially when you take
that many penalties. Your goalie has to be your best player and he was”.
Tomas Fleischmann kicked off the scoring by putting Florida ahead, 1-0, for the only goal of the first period and giving the 8,000 plus crowd a reason to cheer on their Panthers team that struggled throughout the last 2010-2011 regular season.
Florida also killed three power play opportunities during the opening 20 minutes as Tomas Kopecky was penalised twice with minor penalties for goalkeeper interference and Kris Versteeg for holding.
Stars burst in the second period by scoring three straight goals as Tomas Vincour put Dallas on the scoreboard a little over midway through. Loui Eriksson added his second, followed by Toby Petersen with less than two minutes remaining shorthanded as Matt
Fraser served Dallas’ penalty for too many men on the ice.
Florida made a sudden comeback during the closing minutes of the third period as Jonathan Huberdeau and Dmitry Kulikov scored twice on power plays only 35 seconds apart.
Prior to Florida catching up, both teams heated the stadium up as a number of players were booked for minor penalties in addition to Alex Goligoski, Kris Versteeg, Shawn Matthias, Ryan Garbutt and Brenden Dillon being served multiple major’s for fighting
and game misconduct.
Michael Ryder scored his third of the preseason in overtime to allow Dallas to grab the win and improving to a 4-1-0 record.
Dallas and Florida will face-off again on Thursday, September 29, but this time on Stars home turf.
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