Dallas Stars pride night got off to a rather rocky start when the official Stars Twitter account called the Pride Tape ‘Hockey is for Everyone’ tape even though it is specifically Pride Tape in the colours of the gay pride flag. Then it got a little smoother when it was reported by The Athletic’s Sean Shapiro that 12/20 of the Dallas Stars players were even using the tape at all. Jamie Oleksiak, John Klingberg, Miro Heiskanen, Corey Perry, Radek Faksa, Jamie Benn, Joe Pavelski, Esa Lindell, Mattias Janmark, Stephen Johns, Ben Bishop and Tyler Seguin all had the pride tape, as cited by Shapiro. Unrelated, but also a necessary note: Jason Robertson was sent down to the AHL while Alex Radulov made his return to the ice.
The first period started off with a quick turnover by the Dallas Stars, this being followed by 35 seconds of puck possession before a slow shot on net for Bishop to freeze. The Coyotes were the first to the penalty kill after Jacob Chychrun took a high sticking penalty against Jason Dickinson. Seguin then took two quick shots against Adin Hill, both pushed aside with ease.
Corey Perry then potted a quick tic-tac-toe goal through a ton of Coyotes traffic. This would be the case with 17:35 left to play in the first.
Dallas then spent another 25 seconds in the Coyotes zone, launching three good shots towards Hill. With 10:00 remaining in the first period, the Stars were outshooting the Coyotes by a total of 11-5. The referees then missed two tripping penalties committed by Clayton Keller and Alex Goligoski.
It didn’t matter, however, because Jamie Benn had no problem scoring a goal against Adin Hill. This was then ruled offside just moments after nearly breaking the tie. Arizona then gained the zone and took a couple shots against Bishop in close, but none of them able to sneak past him.
Dallas then took a penalty with 3:35 left to play in the first as Joe Pavelski was manhandling Conor Garland, this taking place out front of the Stars net. Mattias Janmark then blocked a shot from Oliver Ekman-Larsson which broke his stick, leaving him with nothing to get the puck away from Arizona before Bishop caught the puck and froze it for a fresh set of legs.
As the second period commenced, it was revealed that John Klingberg had kept the pride tape on as well as the Bisexual-pride flag that he had on the shaft of his stick. The second period saw a bunch of good shots for both teams, but with 11:33 to go in the first, Roope Hintz led Nick Schmaltz into the boards and he went down to the ice and hard. TV’s then cut to break before he got back up off the ice under his own power. Hintz didn’t take a penalty for the hit, but then Corey Perry took a penalty for Goligoski who then took the offsetting penalty for slashing.
Jamie Benn was then sent to the penalty box after a CRUSHING hit on Ekman-Larrsson that left him injured as well, however, unlike Schmaltz, Ekman-Larsson left to the locker room while Jamie Benn was served a game misconduct for boarding.
While Schmaltz was later seated, taking a breather for a couple of shifts, he then returned to the ice, a sigh of relief for the Arizona Coyotes. Taylor Hall then scored a goal against Ben Bishop while the veteran was screened by the opposition. This led to a Carl Soderberg hooking penalty against Jamie Oleksiak after he tried to clear the puck.
Dallas was then put on a 45 second power play after the penalty concluded for Benn. With 10 seconds left on the abbreviated power play, that would see Radek Faksa score a backhanded shot over the leg of Adin Hill.
That would pave the way for Christian Fischer to score on Ben Bishop after a lucky shot from Jordan Oesterle bounced behind his pads and through to the mesh in the back of the net.
Not much happened during the third period except for an excess of low-quality shots on both ends until Ekman-Larsson returned to the ice with eight minutes left in the game’s third period. Of course this was right before Jamie Oleksiak broke the tie with a wicked shot fired down from the blue line.
Arizona then pulled their goalie with 2:20 left to play in the game while icing was called just 10 seconds later with a Stephen Johns near-goal icing in effect. As a result, Arizona called a timeout to get their freshest legs onto the ice for the six-on-five. That would see Esa Lindell force an icing of his own after four consecutive attempts at scoring on the empty net.
To close, Lindell then blocked a shot, this coming off the stick of Canadian Taylor Hall. It was a close call for Arizona on what would’ve been the game-tying goal on the empty net after Bishop had already made the save. This would see the clock die down and game siren sound as Dallas won 3-2.
My Three stars Of The Game:
First Star: Corey Perry – One Goal, One Assist, Two Points, Two Blocked Shots, Three Takeaways
Second Star: Ben Bishop – .951 sv%, 39-41 shots.
Third Star – Radek Faksa – One Goal, One point, Two hits, Three Takeaways