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Stars Close Out 2017 by Suffocating Sharks 6-0

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The Dallas Stars continued their strong play on home ice against the San Jose Sharks, winning 6-0 on New Year’s Eve. They had several players chip in on the scoring with Radek Faksa tallying three assists, and Tyler Pitlick, Mattias Janmark, John Klingberg, and Jamie Benn all picking up two points a piece. Ben Bishop continued his streak of starts finishing with the quietest shutout you’ll ever see on 26 saves. They also won the special teams battle handily, killing off three penalties and scoring on the power play to improve their streak of scoring one power play goal per game in the last six.

To put a damper on things, the Stars endured some attrition to their ranks. Justin Braun was back-checking on Alexander Radulov in the second period and upended him hard into the boards shoulder first. Radulov stayed down a couple of minutes and was taken back to the locker room from which he did not return. Later in the period, Dan Hamhuis was leaving the ice on the penalty kill and took an accidental high stick to the grill to send him back to the locker room, though he did return in the third period.

The Stars had as dominant of a first period as they have had all year, outshooting the Sharks 17-5 and scoring two goals. Every line for Dallas had good shifts, and they were creating good chances with crisp passing and by forcing turnovers on hard forechecks. Klingberg opened the scoring with a one timer from the right circle after Janmark found him cheating down from the point.

To put the Stars up by two, Faksa won a face-off and passed to Tyler Pitlick in the slot. Pitlick beat Martin Jones in the top right corner for his first of two goals in the game, and the Stars had all the momentum heading into the intermission.

On the power play in the second period, the Stars got everything they wanted except for a goal with both Klingberg and Tyler Seguin hitting the pipes. Brett Ritchie joined play and committed a penalty to send the game to 4-on-4, and Stephen Johns capitalized on the open ice. The Stars entered the zone cleanly, and Janmark found Johns at the point where he beat Jones with a wrist shot to put Dallas up 3-0.

The Stars would have a measure of revenge for the play on Radulov when Antoine Roussel threw a clean check on Braun into the boards near the Sharks bench which incited Braun to take a penalty. Klingberg found Seguin in front of the net with a perfect pass, giving Seguin the deflection to beat Jones. The goal ended the night for Jones who was replaced by Aaron Dell in the third period.

Devin Shore had about five or six great opportunities to score earlier in the game and finally found the back of the net in the third period. He beat everyone to the front of Dell’s crease and finished with his backhand. Pitlick also scored his second goal when Faksa’s line crashed the net, and the puck found Pitlick’s stick in the slot. Statically, all that was left was for the Stars to help Bishop complete the shutout in remaining play.

Play of the Game

John Klingberg’s goal got the Stars on the board first and was the prettiest of the night. He knew exactly where to go for Mattias Janmark to find him from behind the net and ensured that Martin Jones would have a night to forget.

The Upset Three Stars of the Game

1. John Klingberg (1 G, 1 A) – Klingberg was setting up Dallas with clean breakouts and crisp passing. He had the opening goal and threw an absolute strike of a pass to set up Tyler Seguin in front of the net on the power play.

2. Radek Faksa (3 A, 67 FO%) – He was a monster on the dot and won the face-off that set up Tyler Pitlick’s goal. Faksa also was excellent in all three zones, including on the penalty kill.

3. Tyler Pitlick (2 G) – Pitlick had an excellent game and was rewarded by going to the net with two goals.

The Goals

First Period

6:19 John Klingberg beat Martin Jones with a one timer on the blocker side after creeping in from the point and taking a pass from Mattias Janmark, who was behind the net. Stars 1, Sharks 0

15:07 Radek Faksa won a draw in the offensive zone and found Tyler Pitlick, who beat Martin Jones over the right shoulder from the slot for his sixth goal of the season. Stars 2, Sharks 0

Second Period

4:25 During 4-on-4 play, Stephen Johns beat Martin Jones from the point with a wrist shot for his fourth goal of the season, putting Dallas up by three. Stars 3, Sharks 0

9:33 On the power play, John Klingberg routed a perfect pass to Tyler Seguin for the deflection that beat Martin Jones short side. Stars 4, Sharks 0

Third Period

11:05 Devin Shore scored an unassisted goal, beating everyone with his speed to the net and finishing smoothly with a backhand in front of Aaron Dell. Stars 5, Sharks 0

11:55 Tyler Pitlick scored his second goal of the game by crashing the net and cashing in off a rebound that was set up by Radek Faksa. Stars 6, Sharks 0

Sharks lineup
Jannik Hansen — Joe Thornton — Joe Pavelski
Melker Karlsson — Logan Couture — Kevin Labanc
Timo Meier — Chris Tierney — Joonas Donskoi
Marcus Sorenson — Joel Ward — Mikkel Boedker

Brenden Dillon — Brent Burns
Marc Edouard-Vlasic — Justin Braun
Joakim Ryan — Dylan Demelo

Martin Jones
Aaron Dell

Injured: Barclay Goodrow (lower body)

Scratched: Tim Heed, Tomas Hertl, Paul Martin

Stars lineup
Jamie Benn — Tyler Seguin — Devin Shore
Mattias Janmark — Jason Spezza — Alexander Radulov
Antoine Roussel — Radek Faksa — Tyler Pitlick
Remi Elie — Gemel Smith — Brett Ritchie

Esa Lindell — John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis — Greg Pateryn
Stephen Johns — Julius Honka

Ben Bishop
Kari Lehtonen

Injured: Marc Methot (knee), Martin Hanzal (lower body)

Scratched: Jason Dickinson

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Comments

  1. Stars were dominant and Sharks were embarrassingly bad. The Sharks had no interest in being here and that’s fine by me! Got two extra points to push ahead further in playoff chase.

    So much looking forward to the 2018 portion of the schedule. Keep up the great play Stars!!

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