DALLAS (AP) — Wyatt Johnston scored on a power play to extend his season-opening goal streak to three games, Jake Oettinger stopped 39 shots and the Dallas Stars won their home opener 5-2 over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night.
Johnston, the 22-year-old in his fourth NHL season, is the first Stars player since Alexander Radulov in 2018-19 to have a goal in each of the first three games.
The Stars are 3-0 in Glen Gulutzan’s return as their head coach. This is only the third time since moving to Dallas before the 1993-94 season for them to score at least three goals in each of their first three games, and they have now won their last six home openers.
Dallas led 3-0 on Matt Duchene's power-play goal 1:31 into the second period, on a puck hit into the crease that deflected off defenseman Jake Middleton’s skate and and past goalie Filip Gustavsson, who finished with 20 saves. Esa Lindell scored from the top of the right circle 5:37 into the game, and Johnston scored late in the first period.
Matt Boldy and Kiril Kaprizov scored power-play goals for Minnesota in the third period, both assisted by Zeev Buium.
Radek Faksa and Roope Hintz, who assisted on both first-period goals, scored empty-netters in the final 1:42. They became the 10th and 11th different Stars already this season to score a goal.
Gulutzan's was behind the Stars bench at American Airlines Center for the first time since a 3-0 season-ending loss to Detroit on April 27, 2013. That was a couple of weeks before he was fired by then-new general manager Jim Nill, who then brought him back as head coach in July to replaced the fired Pete DeBoer.
Dallas hosts Vancouver on Thursday night. The Wild play the second of five consecutive road games Friday at Washington
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