Kari Lehtonen stays hot as Dallas Stars shutout Minnesota Wild 1-0 -NHL Update
Dallas goalie, Kari Lehtonen, stayed hot as he lead Stars to their sixth straight victory this time shutting out Minnesota Wild, 1-0, blocking all 25 shots in his net on Tuesday night, March 13, 2012, at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United
States.
"Just the last month, he's really brought his game to a new level," Stars coach, Glen Gulutzan, said about Lehtonen. "Yeah, the shutout and everything -- but just how clean he was with his rebound control I think is the most impressive part to me."
Stars were coming straight out of a 2-0 shutout of Anaheim Ducks, boosting their chances of being the team that makes a run for Stanley Cup championship glory this time along with securing Dallas’ third spot in the Western Conference with 83 points.
"In the end, we got two points and that's what we came here for," Dallas’ Jamie Benn said. "We're not trying to make it pretty out there. We're trying to keep it ugly, play a simple game and that's why we're successful right now."
Instead of being frustrated due to not being able to score in the first 40 minutes of regulation game-play, Dallas kept their cooling heading into the final period as Jamie Benn scored the game-winner at 3:46.
Stars avoided giving Minnesota any chances to score on the power play by not giving any penalties at all and securing the match after the only goal.
Matt Hackett was also nearly perfect for the Wild in the net as he fell short on only one out of 25 attempts, but it was a shame that Minnesota failed to add a single goal throughout.
Minnesota even pulled out Hackett during the final moments of the final period and kept Dallas from scoring even further, but it was pointless as their players failed on a number of opportunities.
Dallas will be looking to continue improving as they have the next against Winnipeg Jets on the road on Wednesday.
Minnesota is certainly confused at the moment as they seem to not have found a way yet to get back to their winning ways. Wild has the next against Carolina Hurricanes at home on Saturday.
Tags: