Following a tough loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, the Dallas Stars bounced back with a dominant performance against the New Jersey Devils.
Roope Hintz scored twice during a three-goal second period, and Scott Wedgewood made 29 saves against his former team to lead the Stars to a 6-2 victory over the Devils on Saturday night.
The win came after a disappointing 5-1 loss to Philadelphia, where the Flyers outshot the Stars 43-15.
“I liked everything about our game tonight,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “We addressed the issues from the last game and corrected them tonight. Now we must carry this momentum into tomorrow’s game against the Islanders.”
Joe Pavelski, Matt Duchene, Craig Smith, and Wyatt Johnston also scored as the Stars improved to 6-1-1 in their last eight games against New Jersey. The victory overshadowed the Devils’ induction of three-time Stanley Cup winner and assistant coach Sergei Brylin into their Ring of Honor at the Prudential Center.
Wedgewood, who improved to 3-0 against his former team, faced a scare early in the third period when a slapshot by Michael McLeod hit his facemask and knocked it off. Despite late goals from Jesper Bratt and Tyler Toffoli, the Stars had already built a 6-0 lead.
Wedgewood credited his performance to stopping four close-range attempts in the opening 37 seconds.
“Those early saves settled the team down,” he said. “We got out of that initial flurry, scored a couple of goals, and found our rhythm.”
Nico Daws made 30 saves for the Devils, whose four-goal loss matched their worst of the season.
Pavelski opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 5:42, set up by Jamie Benn. Hintz then stunned New Jersey with a spectacular short-handed goal at 7:58, skating around rookie defenseman Simon Nemec and beating Daws with a backhander.
“Yeah, I just tried to get through that guy,” Hintz said of Nemec. “Then I saw an opportunity and finished it off.”
Duchene added his 15th of the season into an open net at 16:31, and Hintz scored his 20th with 18 seconds left in the period. Smith and Johnston added goals in the third period, sending many Devils fans home early.
One of the best saves of the night came from a combination of Wedgewood and Stars captain Benn, who cleared the puck out of the crease after a partial save on a Timo Meier shot.
New Jersey now holds a 9-11-2 record at home and is 1-8-1 in the second game of back-to-back contests.
“We knew it would be a tough night,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. “Dallas was coming off a bad loss and was ready to bounce back. We walked into a hornet’s nest.”
UP NEXT
- Stars: Visit the New York Islanders on Sunday for Patrick Roy’s first game as their new coach.
- Devils: Host the Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights on Monday.
