Tyler Pitlick embracing new opportunities on Stars penalty kill

DALLAS — Before this season Tyler Pitlick had rarely played shorthanded hockey as a professional.

In both the AHL and the NHL, Pitlick’s experience killing penalties had been limited to preseason games and the occasional shift when there was an offensive zone draw late in the kill.

But that hasn’t stopped Dallas Stars coach Ken Hitchcock from trusting Pitlick while shorthanded.

“Never, this is a first for me,” Pitlick said. “It’s good, I mean I don’t play power play. So if I’m not playing penalty kill I spend a lot of time on the bench, so I’m enjoying it.”

So what stood out to Hitchcock?

“Two things, speed and good stick,” Hitchcock said. “He’s been well coached and he puts his stick in the right lanes, so you know people can be teachable and coachable if you do that. Rick (Wilson) worked really hard with him, but we saw that on game film when he was with Edmonton.”

Pitlick has embraced the opportunity.

On Tuesday he had 2 minutes, 24 seconds of ice time while shorthanded. During that stretch he forced a pair of turnovers — one that led directly to a scoring chance and one that led to a drawn penalty against Dylan Larkin.

“Obviously we don’t want to be in the box, but we’ve been really good on the kill and I’m enjoying killing,” Pitlick said. “I haven’t usually killed in the past, but it’s been fun. I like getting up ice and making them uncomfortable, so it’s fun for me.”

Dallas went 4-four-5 on the penalty kill Tuesday. The lone-goal against was a 4-on-3 power play for Detroit by Anthony Mantha.

Through three games the Stars have killed 85.7 percent of the power plays against. Pitlick is happy to be part of that effort, even if he fully doesn’t understand why he’s been a natural fit shorthanded.

“I don’t know, they’ve had confidence in me and they’ve let me play,” Pitlick said. “It’s just kind of getting the reps and working on it and practice, and they’ve had the confidence to put me out there so that gives me the confidence to play.”