Stars Get Revenge in Shutout Over Nashville
Nashville takes a timeout after Brad Richards scores the Stars' second goal of the night. Dallas went on to win 6-0 over the visiting Predators. (photo credit: Ben Ellis)
The Nashville Predators were reeling a bit coming into last night’s game against the Stars. The Predators had lost two games in a row; the last, a punishing loss to Edmonton, 6-1. So, I was optimistic for the Stars to finally get a home win for this season. Nashville had denied the Stars that win in their season opener on October 3rd. The Preds pushed Dallas to a shootout in that game, which Nashville won.
I had tickets for the “rematch”, thanks to a visit to the “Open House” the Stars did at the end of September. I got the tickets, and put them aside, not really looking at them. I figured the seats would be in the upper bowl, like most of the comp tickets I manage to luck across. As I pulled them out last night to get a better look at the seats, I realized that the tickets were for Platinum Level seats, and center-ice ones at that! Thank you, Dallas Stars!
As the game was a mid-week matchup, the attendance suffered a little bit, but the building was mostly full. The game started off a little “clunky”, with three of four stops of play in the first few minutes. But then the captain got the crowd back into the game. Brendan Morrow scored just a little more than three minutes into the game to get things started, and the Stars Offensive Assault took over from there. Brad Richards and Loui Eriksson both tallied before Morrow added his second of the evening, and the Stars were suddenly up 4-0. The period wasn’t even half-over! Dallas scored three goals on their first three shots before Dan Ellis was pulled from net. Their fourth goal came on the fifth shot of the evening. I knew the pace couldn’t continue…but it was easy to imagine it doing so, with Nashville providing such weak resistance.
To say the crowd was excited would be an understatement. They were practically giddy. Normally, I prefer to come to games that go down to the wire. But last night, I didn’t mind at all. It was great seeing the Stars take charge of a game and direct the tempo and attitude. By the end of the third period, the Predators were trying their best to walk out of the American Airlines Center with a little dignity. They wanted to spoil Turco’s shutout bid, and were making their best offensive push of the night. The Stars really played well defensively, though, and when the pucks did get past the diving bodies of Dallas players, Marty was there to absorb them. His shining moment came with just a few minutes left. On shots from about 15 feet out, Marty made two highlight-reel-worthy saves. The first save got fans on their feet in the AAC, and the second brought out the chant. “Marrr-ty. Marrr-ty. Marrr-ty.” I have to say, it was really great to hear. Last year was pretty rough for Turco, and the chant that used to be so prevelant at games was absent for the most part. If you did hear it, there wasn’t much power behind it. Last night’s chant was like a welcome back to an old friend.
By the time the dust had settled, the Stars came away with a 6-0 win. There weren’t really any aspects of the Stars’ play that drew concern, either. The boys appeared to be firing on all cylinders on Wednesday night. Whether that will carry over to Friday’s game against Boston will remain to be seen, but for now? Things are good in Big D.