The Dallas Stars won 4-1 against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on October 13, mainly on the backs of goalie Jake Oettinger, who made 31 saves, and left-winger Mason Marchment, who netted his first two goals as a Star.
“We got a big win, and I couldn’t have asked for a better start,” Marchment told NHL.com of the win.
Marchment, who joined the Stars on a four-year deal on July 13, scored on a breakaway at 2:31 of the first period to give Dallas a 1-0 lead.
He made it 2-0 at 18:56 of the opening period on the power play off a pass from defenseman Nils Lundkvist.
Tyler Seguin had three assists for Dallas in its season opener, and Wyatt Johnston scored in his NHL debut.
“If you were going to draw it up, that’s probably what it would look like,” Peter DeBoer told NHL.com. “Tough building against a real good team. I thought we had a team effort. There [were] no passengers tonight. I thought everybody contributed.”
Joe Pavelski ran the lead to 3-0 for Dallas at 19:09 in the second period, slapping in a loose puck after Roope Hintz’s fanned shot attempt.
Johnston — the Stars’ first-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft — made it 4-0 with a goal on a power play four minutes into the third.
“It’s just kind of a lifelong dream kind of come true,” Johnston told NHL.com. “It was great, first of all, to get the win, and it was just so much fun. It’s hard to put it into words, really. It’s just surreal.”
Oettinger allowed just one goal in the win (1-0).
Marchment became the seventh player in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history to score multiple goals in his debut, according to NHL.com. Jaromir Jagr was the most recent player to achieve the feat making two goals on January 19, 2013.
At 19 years and 151 days, Johnston became the second-youngest player in Stars/North Stars history to score in his NHL debut. Dallas is the third team in NHL history to have at least one goal by a teenager (Johnston) and one by a player 38 or older (Pavelski) in a season opener, joining the Quebec Nordiques (Mats Sundin and Guy Lafleur, October 4, 1990) and the Florida Panthers (Jonathan Huberdeau and Alex Kovalev, January 19, 2013), NHL.com reported.
The Stars’ opening night win followed a pre-season where Dallas boasted a 2-5 record.
The Stars are off on Friday but host Nashville (2-1) again on Saturday, October 15, starting at 7 p.m. CDT in the team’s home opener. Tickets for the night’s event can be found here.
