Roope Hintz capped a three-point game with his first goal of the season, helping Dallas hold off the Minnesota Wild 5-2 on Tuesday in the Stars’ home opener.
Hintz assisted on goals for Esa Lindell and Wyatt Johnston, and both reciprocated on Hintz’s tally. Radel Faksa and Matt Duchene also scored for Dallas, although the latter left the game early in the third period after taking a hit from Wild defenseman Jake Middleton.
Jake Oettinger made 39 saves for the win.
Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov both scored their fourth goals of the season for the Wild, who could not come back from a 3-0 deficit.
Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson saved 20 of 23 shots he faced.
Despite getting outshot 14-11 in the first period, the Stars went ahead when Lindell got his first goal of the season with 14:23 left.
The Stars doubled their lead less than 11 minutes later on Johnston’s power-play goal. It came after Johnston, Hintz and Mikko Rantanen each peppered shots in the slot in a six-second span before Johnston collected the loose puck and skated in from the right circle to get his third of the season.
Duchene scored another power-play goal 91 seconds into the second period. He took a pass from Mavrik Bourque and fired a tight-angled shot that found its way past Gustavsson.
With 17:46 to go in the third, Duchene went down after colliding with Middleton at center ice. The Stars’ points leader from last season was able to make it up on his own and skate to the bench, but he eventually made his way to the locker room.
Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan did not have news on Duchene’s condition postgame.
Middleton was not penalized for the hit, but Dallas defenseman Alexander Petrovic responded by fighting the Wild blueliner. Both drew five-minute penalties for fighting, with Petrovic also getting two-minute instigator and 10-minute misconduct penalties.
The hit gave Minnesota some momentum as Boldy scored for the league’s best power-play with 16:10 to go. Kaprizov added another power-play with 6:56 left, but Faksa and Hintz got empty-netters in the final two minutes to secure the Stars’ third win in as many games.
