Gurianov's natural hat trick leads Stars prospects to 4-1 win against Rangers

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Denis Gurianov had a natural hat trick and the Dallas Stars prospects closed out the NHL Prospect Tournament with a 4-1 win against the New York Rangers in the seventh-place game.

Gurianov had a rough and inconsistent start to the tournament but turned up his play in the final two games and had four goals in the final four periods.

“It was good game,” Gurianov said. “We won and I got hat trick. So I want to thank my partners, my teammates that gave me pass.”

New York had taken a 1-0 lead at 13:08 of the first period before Gurianov took over offensively.

At 13:23 of the second period Gurianov beat a defender on the rush and fired an initial shot that was stopped by Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev. Georgiev couldn’t control the rebound and Gurianov regained control to scored his second goal of the tournament.

Twenty-five seconds into the third period Gurianov scored on the power play to give Dallas a 2-1 lead with assists from Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson.

He completed the hat trick with 54 seconds remaining when he forced a turnover and scored into the empty net.

“That’s the hockey we need to see consistently,” Texas Stars coach Derek Laxdal said. “Give Denis credit. We talk about him spring-boarding himself in the Dallas camp. And I think he’s taken that step on the springboard and hopefully jumps right into camp with confidence.

Nick Caamano scored with 24 seconds remaining to give Dallas a 4-1 lead.

It was also a bounce back game for Landon Bow, who had allowed 13 goals in his first two starts. Bow made 23 saves on 24 shots on Tuesday and was particularly effective in the third period when Dallas was clinging to a 2-1 lead.

Soustal hurt

Free agent Tomas Soustal left the game with head injury in the first period and was held out for the remainder of the game a precaution.

Stars lineup

Denis Gurianov — Roope Hintz — Jason Robertson
Nick Caamano — Sheldon Dries — Tomas Soustal
Samuel Laberge — Max French — Brett Davis
Zach Roberts — Shaw Boomhower — Cole Tymkin

Gavin Bayreuther — Niklas Hansson
Eric Sweetman — John Nyberg
Shane Hanna — Ondrej Vala

Landon Bow
Jeremy Brodeur

Scratches: Chris Martenet (illness), Vince Loschiavo