ANAHEIM—The Ducks played both sides of the game tremendously well to open the 2014 post season. Three unanswered goals in the first and a stellar defense in the third lead to a game one victory for the Ducks defeating the Dallas Stars 4-3 at Honda Center Wednesday night.
That power showed fast in the first period as a regular season mistake would not take place in the postseason. Kyle Palmieri made that possible with the opening goal coming off a charge to the net where he backhanded the puck through the five hole of Dallas netminder Kari Lehtonen for a 1-0 lead. The excitement soon turned to worry as the Ducks put the Stars on two power plays in the period where they took advantage of the extra man and gave everything they had on Frederik Andersen who made his first playoff start.
The Dane handled the team well making big saves on Tyler Seguin who was denied a point blank shot in front. Anaheim responded back past the halfway point where Dallas’ rebounded shot turned the puck over, where a 3 on 2 led to Corey Perry snapping a drive on net where Captain Ryan Getzlaf scored on a tip in.
It was his 22nd playoff goal with the team and not the last one he would be a part of. Before the close of the period, the Ducks were on the man advantage dialing up the pressure for the Stars leading to Mathieu Perreault scoring on a wrist shot to grow the lead large. Dallas outshot Anaheim 14-10, but with a sizable margin overpowering them a lot would need to be done fast.
The Stars defense came to play in the second where they were successful on blocked shots in front of Lethtonen to cool down the Ducks offense. Unfortunately for their efforts, the fire wasn’t put out as Francois Beauchemin sent a drove from the glove side where Matt Beleskey made a screen out front to get credit on a tip in and make it a 4-0 rout.
Luck found its way to the Stars offense with Jamie Benn notching the team’s first where he took a pass from across the net from Seguin to wrist on an open point giving him his first postseason goal. It lit the fire under the Dallassquad with Colton Sceviour recording his first on a drive at the open stick side of Andersen to cut the Ducks lead in half.
Anaheim made a stance on both sides of the puck to start the third where they conducted the time on the clock. Minutes went by before the Stars recorded a shot in the period but their tenacity paid off with the offense determined to fight to the end for a Game 1 upset. Seguin put the Stars down by one, with six minutes left on a re-direct from Trevor Daley. The team continued to show fight to tie the game at four apiece, but it turned into a losing battle as the Anaheim defense played a man to man coverage that was too much for the Stars to break out of.
The team stopped 21 of Dallas’ 35 shots helping Andersen record a big win in his first season in the NHL playoffs. The performance done by him spells trouble for the Stars as two big goaltenders for the Ducks stand in their way to making the series an even strength situation. Only time will tell when game two goes off on Friday night.
