On a night where the visiting Stars players hit a pair of different milestones, Dallas got off to an early start with the celebrations in the heart of Toronto. Andrew Cogliano was forced to skate a lap on his own during warmups to celebrate his 1000th game at age 32. Cogliano has missed only six games in his 13-year career and was, at one point, the league’s “Most durable player” with an 830 game ironman streak. Other milestones celebrated on Thursday were Roman Polak’s 800th game and Jason Robertson’s first NHL Game (in for Joe Pavelski)
The game was opened up very quickly with yet another Denis Gurianov goal, number 17 on the year. It started with a giveaway by the Leafs in which Gurianov just picked up the puck, skated to the front of the net and just slid it under Frederik Andersen.
The Leafs got their first real chance with a Kapanen deke around Miro Heiskanen, but it was stopped by a Kevin Faksa stick check.
The rest of the first period was pretty uneventful but at the start of the second, less than a minute in, Faksa earns himself a breakaway and goes five-hole once again on Frederik Andersen. The Leafs then earned themselves a penalty kill after Justin Holl earned a penalty for roughing. Then right as they kill the Holl penalty, Toronto earn themselves another penalty, this time for too many men.
After both penalties concluded with no significant chances for either side, a fight broke out between Jamie Oleksiak and the 6’2 Winger and new addition Kyle Clifford. Pretty even scrap, though Jamie Oleksiak hit the sheet first.
Bishop then made a quick save and then appeared to be disoriented, leaving a wide open net for another two shots, both skipping past the pipes going back to the boards.
Corey Perry then took a penalty of his own for tripping Auston Matthews… this also happened..D
Auston Matthews scored on the power play to close the gap between the two to one. Then a bunch of nothing then Miro Heiskanen was called for holding. As the penalty call stood for Dallas, Toronto failed to score before the end of the period.
The Stars added another early goal as Tyler Seguin scored to open the third. This would ultimately end his 17 goal drought to double the Dallas Stars’ lead.
Most of the game’s third period was trading shots and trading hits, but at 3:10, Sheldon Keefe decided to pull Frederik Andersen for the extra attacker. Zack Hyman then got credited with a weird goal deflection to close the gap to 3-2. Toronto then lost the draw and had to deal with 30 seconds of offensive pressure for nothing. Only for Toronto to break it out and launch an all out attack against Ben Bishop who bends in net, but cannot be broken. Stars win 3-2 in regulation.
Dallas Stars milestones reached Thursday:
Andrew Cogliano’s 1000th game
Jason Robertson’s First NHL game
Roman Polak’s 800th NHL Game
Tyler Seguin’s first goal in 17 games
My Three Stars-
Tyler Seguin – One Goal
Radek Faksa – One Goal
Ben Bishop – 30/31 -.960