Dallas Stars outshine Florida Panthers in 4-1 win
The Dallas Stars are a team that has been known to outshine their opponents with their great offensive skills. On Thursday, 21 October, they did just that as they beat the Florida Panthers 4-1 at the BankAtlantic
Centre in Sunrise, Florida.
Centre Tom Wandell led the way for the Stars with a pair of goals. However, it was Wandell’s team-mate Steve Ott who got the ball rolling for the visiting team. He used a backhand shot to beat Tomas Vokoun
at 16:56 of the first period, with Jamie Benn and Niklas Grossman picking up the assists. It was the first goal of the season for Dallas’ enforcer. Wandell scored his first goal of the game at 19:39 on assists from Karlis Skrastins and Benn.
James Neal, who is coming off a great 2009-10 campaign, scored the Stars’ third goal to start the second period. Neal’s wrist shot found the back of the net at 8:09, and was assisted by Loui Eriksson and
Stephane Robidas. Benn earned his third assist of the game on Wandell’s second goal, which came at 19:26 of the second frame. Trevor Daley had the other assist on the centre’s powerful wrist shot.
The lone goal scored in the final period was one from Florida’s Stephen Weiss at 16:54. Michael Frolik assisted on the tip-in, which ended Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen’s bid for a shutout. Despite the
late attempt at a rally, the Panthers could not get any more pucks past Dallas’ flashy Finnish stopper.
Stars head coach Marc Crawford was impressed with his team’s performance, especially that of the line that produced most of the team’s goals in the game.
“That was a tremendous performance from the line of Wandell, Ott and Jamie Benn coming back into the lineup,” said Crawford. “That takes pressure off the (other) lines.”
Crawford also had some words of praise for Lehtonen’s play.
“Our goalie is playing so well,” Crawford said. “He’s just building such confidence from our group.”
Brad Richards was also happy with the Stars’ efforts in the game, despite Lehtonen losing his shutout bid late in the third period.
“We had a good, solid game,” the Stars centre said. “We would have liked to have given him (Lehtonen) a shutout, but we won.”
Panthers head coach Peter DeBoer was not a happy man post-game, and could not say anything positive about any of his players.
“That’s not an excuse, time off,” DeBoer said. “It’s disappointing. Our effort, our preparation, our attention to detail, we got beat at all the things that we’re supposed to be taking pride in, outworking
teams and attention to detail.
“I think one through twenty, we weren’t good. I don’t think there’s a guy in (the locker room) I could point to and say, hey, he was good.”
Both teams will return to action on Saturday, 23 October. The Stars will face the Nashville Predators, while the Panthers will take on the New York Islanders.
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