Stars end preseason with 5-1 loss, Hanzal adjusts well to new face-off rules

The Dallas Stars preseason schedule came to a close with a 5-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.

It was the informal Stars debut for Martin Hanzal, who was minus-2 in 16 minutes, 44 seconds of ice time.

It was also Hanzal’s in-game introduction to the new face-off rules, which have caused a bit of a stir in the preseason and confused several NHL players.

Hanzal addressed that earlier this week.

“Will see on Saturday. I guess every ref is going to be different too,” Hanzal said. “So it’s going to be different, I also don’t know if it’s going to be the same way in the regular season, or if it’s just this way in preseason.”

“I have to talk to refs and see what they want,” Hanzal added. “I’m sure it’ll be adjustment. But hopefully not that big with how I play.”

Hanzal did enlist some help with his adjustment during the game.

Linesman Brian Mach spends TV timeout giving Martin Hanzal a faceoff violation tutorial. Remember, it's Hanzal's first look at crackdown

— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) October 1, 2017

The results were positive and Hanzal finished with 10 wins on 12 draws.

The goals

Second Period

1:30 Mikko Koivu gave the Wild a lead early in the second on a feed from Jason Zucker. Wild 1, Stars 0

7:24 Charlie Coyle finished off a sharp passing play and beat Ben Bishop on the stick side. Wild 2, Stars 0

Third Period

0:35 Eric Staal scored early in the third period as Bishop was screened by his own team. Wild 3, Stars 0

7:11 Jason Spezza ended Devan Dubnyk’s shutout bid. Brett Ritchie was right there and may have poked it in, but Spezza got official credit. Wild 3, Stars 1

14:26 Eric Staal scored on a rebound just after a Stars power play had expired. Wild 4, Stars 1

18:27 Marcus Foligno score on the power play. Wild 5, Stars 1

Stars lineup

Remi Elie — Jason Spezza — Brett Ritchie
Antoine Roussel — Martin Hanzal — Devin Shore
Gemel Smith — Radek Faksa — Tyler Pitlick
Jason Dickinson — Roope Hintz — Adam Cracknell

Marc Methot — Jamie Oleksiak
Esa Lindell — Julius Honka
Dan Hamhuis — Stephen Johns

Ben Bishop
Kari Lehtonen