The Dallas Stars have had a lot of recent success against the Vancouver Canucks coming into the game Thursday night winning seven straight dating back three seasons ago.
That success continued this year as the Stars came back from a 3-1 deficit and won on the shoulders of a Jamie Benn overtime goal. Ryan Miller sparkled but couldn't hold off the high powered Stars who found a way through him with two goals in the third period to get the game into overtime.
The game started in the Stars favor as they out shot Vancouver 10-0 until just over eight minutes left in the first when Alexandre Burrows went in on a shorthanded breakaway. He got held up and a questionable penalty shot was rewarded. Burrows came in on the Dallas netminder, Antti Niemi, and snuck the puck between his pads going five-hole and put the Canucks up 1-0 on their second shot of the game.
After that turning point the game was played a lot more evenly. Patrick Sharp tied the game later in the period off of a rush with a flighty puck from the wing that fooled a rock solid Ryan Miller for his second goal as a Dallas Star. The shots ended 13-10 for Dallas as the teams headed into the tunnel tied at one heading into the second period.
The second period was more in favor of Vancouver. They jumped ahead 2-1 on a point shot from Alex Edler through traffic five and a half minutes into the period. They really tested Niemi and took it to the Stars launching 12 shots on net. The Canucks took control of the game forced a lot of turnovers at their blue-line and putting on the jets for shots off the rush. Niemi stood tall and looked sharp once again, doing everything he could to keep his team in it while they struggled to generate offense.
Lindy Ruff, the Stars coach, tried to shake things up to spark some offense by juggling lines to start the third. It worked quite the opposite as Daniel Sedin came in on Niemi and put a puck on net that bounced right onto the stick of Radim Vrbata who shovled in his third goal of the season just 10 seconds after the puck dropped.
The Canucks were hoping that was enough, and it was for most of the third until Jason Demers wristed a shot from the blue-line through traffic that bounced off of both legs of Luca Sbisa and in behind Miller.
Roughly five minutes after that John Klingberg, while dancing across the blue-line, found a shooting lane and threw it on net. Patrick Sharp gets the tip in front and ties the game. Sharps second of the game and third in his past two games.
Vancouver, so far in this young season, had been 0/3 with the new three on theee setup while this is the Stars first taste of the season. Who else but the captain Jamie Benn. He picked up a loose puck at his blue line, traded passes with Tyler Seguin, walked from beneath the goal line with Seguin out front. He looked off Seguin and roofed the winner past Miller as he saluted the heavens skating back to the bench.
The Canucks came into this one as the best faceoff team in the league but lost that battle Thursday night 34-24. Another bright spot for the Stars was young Russian winger Valeri Nichuskin looked sharp. He was dominant on the puck and showied more of what he had in his rookie season. After missing most of last season he's not quite up to speed yet but every game is progressing. The Canucks roll on to play the Arizona Coyotes tomorrow night in another Western Conference battle looking to get back in the win column.