On Monday, November 11th at PPG Paints Arena, the Penguins hosted the Stars and unfortunately took a tough 7-1 loss. However, it was an excellent victory for Dallas as they scored six straight in the first period to get things started. Anthony Beauvillier scored the lone goal for Pittsburgh to avoid a shutout. Matt Duchene, Logan Stankoven, Mason Marchment, Miro Heiskanen (two), Tyler Seguin, and Wyatt Johnston all scored the seven goals for Dallas. Marchment recorded a goal and four assists to help the Stars secure this seven-goal win. Joel Blomqvist had been pulled after allowing three goals on eight shots in the first, Alex Nedeljkovic taking his place and surrendered four goals on 31 shots total in relief. The Penguins will be hosting the Detroit Red Wings next on Wednesday, and the Stars head back to the American Airlines Center to take on the Boston Bruins on Thursday.
Dallas Stars Lineup:
Robertson – Hintz – Dadonov
Marchment – Duchene – Seguin
Benn – Johnston – Stankoven
Steel – Bourque – Blackwell
Lindell – Heiskanen
Harley – Lundkvist
Smith – Lybushkin
Oettinger
DeSmith
Pittsburgh Penguins Lineup:
O’Connor – Crosby – Rakell
Bunting – Malkin – Rust
Puljujarvi – Eller – Accairi
Beauvillier – Lizotte – Puustinen
Grzelcyk – Letang
Pettersson – Karlsson
Graves – St. Ivany
Blomqvist
Nedeljkovic
Giving the Stars a 1-0 lead early in the first period with his eighth of the season – Matt Duchene opened the scoring at 17:27 of the first when he scored on a wrist shot that trickled past Joel Blomqvist. He took a pass from Mason Marchment, going on to carry the puck around Ryan Graves to the right face-off circle before firing a wrister. Logan Stankoven made it a 2-0 lead for Dallas with a snapshot at 12:47 from the left circle that ended up going in off Erik Karlsson’s skate. During a Penguins line change, a stretch pass ended up bouncing off the end boards to Mason Marchment, who extended the Stars’ lead to 3-0, scored on a snap shot in the slot with 9:44 on the clock. Miro Heiskanen struck his first of the season to make it 4-0 with a one-timer at 6:51… then he pushed it to 5-0 on a breakaway when he fired a wrist shot past Alex Nedeljkovic at 5:24 of the opening frame. With 1:21 remaining in the first, Tyler Seguin increased the Stars’ lead when he made it 6-0 on the power play during a 2-on-1 after he took a pass from Marchment.
Anthony Beauvillier scored the one and only Penguins goal, avoiding a shutout when he cut it to 6-1 late in the middle frame with 4:57 remaining. He received the puck from Valtteri Puustinen, who got the puck from Jack St. Ivany to get it out into the Stars’ zone, and then he passed it to Beauvillier, who put a wrister past Jake Oettinger to the right of the net.
Wyatt Johnston decided 6-1 wasn’t enough when he sent a one-timer home late in the third period with 4:50 remaining in regulation on the power play for a 7-1 final. This had been Johnston’s second goal of the season.
Mason Marchment on how it was as a team to have this kind of offensive output, a weight being lifted, and both Wyatt Johnston and Miro Heiskanen: “It was huge. It’s nice for a bunch of the guys to get on the board and feel good about ourselves, especially after the last game where we didn’t give our best… I thought tonight right from the start of the game we were on it,” – “It just kind of takes the weight off you, you feel lighter out there, and they both played great tonight. They could have had a couple more easily. So, just got to start building on it and just keep playing.”
Sidney Crosby on the first period, the loss, performance lately, and on what’s said after that first 20 minutes: “We got behind and just started chasing it. Do that against a dangerous team, it can get ugly, and that’s what happened… You just got to try to go win a period. When we make mistakes like that and put ourselves in that spot, it’s tough, but you got to try to keep playing and play through it – We gave up some early goals and instead of realizing we had a lot of game left, we started to force it a bit, opened up, and they capitalized,” – “We played some good periods of hockey, especially this week on that trip. I thought we did a lot of good things, and I don’t think this game has been a sign of how we played lately. So, it’s frustrating and obviously, when you look at wins and losses, we’re not where we want to be… but I think leading up to this, we’ve been doing a lot of good things – There’s not much to say when it’s 6-0. You just got to play through it. You can’t quit. You can’t give up. We put ourselves in that position. We’ve got to keep playing and see what happens.”
Notes:
– Matt Duchene picked up a goal and two assists… Brendan Dillon and Esa Lindell had both picked up a pair of assists.
– Mason Marchment is the second player for the Stars to record four points in the first period of a game… He joins Barry Gibbs (December 21st, 1974: one goal and three assists in the first period against the Penguins).
– Jake Oettinger made a total of 20 saves for Dallas.
– Brendan Smith played in his 700th NHL career game.
– The Stars scored on six of their first 12 shots. …This had been the seventh time in Stars history that they scored six goals in a period, and only the second time since relocating to Dallas in 1993 (February 6th, 2009: six goals in the third period).
– The Stars (14:37) had scored the third-fastest five goals to start a game in their history. They scored five in 9:00 on March 16th, 1971, and five in 14:27 on January 16th, 1984.
– After replacing Joel Blomqvist, Alex Nedeljkovic had allowed two goals on the first two shots he faced.
– This is the first time at home that the Penguins allowed six first-period goals in their history.
