The Stars pinch out the Utah Hockey Club

Beaten in Buffalo, the Stars still burn

Losing their way through

The Dallas Stars lost their game on qualification night and kept their flame anyway. This was a virtual match: each team played its own game against a club from the East, and whichever scored more went through. The Stars finished 2nd of 32 last season. The Utah Hockey Club finished 27th. All Dallas had to do was outscore Utah. Whoever fell short went dark before the Gauntlet had really begun.

Blanked in Salt Lake City

Utah's night was over by the first intermission. At Delta Center, the Ottawa Senators scored four times in the 1st. Drake Batherson ripped a slap shot at 11:43. Claude Giroux snapped one in 1:23 later. Ridly Greig scored on the power play at 18:05, and Brady Tkachuk added a snap shot with eight seconds left in the period. Connor Ingram stopped 4 of 8 before Karel Vejmelka replaced him and turned aside all 14 he faced. At the other end, Anton Forsberg stopped all 31 Utah shots. Utah finished with zero, so a single Dallas goal would do.

Harley lights the way

In Buffalo, that goal didn't come for a long time. Peyton Krebs batted the puck out of the air at 12:21 of the 2nd, Ryan McLeod followed 1:23 later, and Tage Thompson's slap shot made it 3-0 early in the 3rd. Then the Stars pulled their goalie for an extra attacker, and at 15:24 defenseman Thomas Harley wristed one in from Matt Duchene and Evgenii Dadonov. That one goal was enough. Tyler Seguin added another with the extra attacker at 17:48. Utah's flame was snuffed, and Dallas burns on, one of 27 still lit.