– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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DALLAS — There surely was a point where Dallas Stars goalkeeper Casey DeSmith looked down at his opposing counterpart in his crease and reminisced about the time when they were teammates in Pittsburgh, trying to one-up each other while forming a close bond. But on Sunday night, DeSmith wanted nothing more than to get the best of his former teammate and mentor, and he and the Stars faced the perfect opponent to get that done.
DeSmith stopped 30 of 31 shots replacing regular goalkeeper Jake Oettinger as the Stars defeated the Seattle Kraken 2-1 inside American Airlines Center on Sunday night. Tyler Seguin scored with 34 seconds to go in the first period for the game winner for Dallas, who are 6-1-3 in its last 10 games.
“Every win feels great,” DeSmith said. “There are no bad teams in this league. Every game is hard, and you have to earn it. Thankfully, we got four points on the weekend in another back-to-back (Dallas won 5-4 at the Nashville Predators on Saturday). That’s great.”
The Stars are now 11-1-1 all time vs. Seattle in regular-season play, 6-0-1 at home. Dallas defeated Seattle in seven games in the first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
In a battle of back-up goalkeepers, DeSmith went up against the man whom he backed up in Pittsburgh, now Kraken third-string goalkeeper Matt Murray. It was DeSmith who impressed all night, especially after allowing an early goal just 3:15 into the game on a deflection by Jaden Schwartz of an Adam Larsson point shot. After that, DeSmith was flawless, and nine of his 30 stops on the evening game on the penalty kill, where Dallas killed off all three Kraken power plays on the night.
“No question, I thought [DeSmith] was outstanding tonight and made some big saves. Certainly, he would be our first star,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “I really liked our penalty kill, guys sacrificing there, blocking shots.
The Stars responded after Seattle’s opening goal, as Wyatt Johnston tied it 1-1 at 4:24 with a power-play goal. He took a pass from Jason Robertson at the top of the crease, curled the puck to his forehand, and slid it under the glove of Murray.
Seguin gave Dallas a 2-1 lead in the final minute of the first period when he knocked the puck through the skates of Seattle defenseman Ryan Lindgren on a rush before sliding a backhand past Murray’s right pad.
“That was pretty exciting,” Seguin said. “I’m waking up every day and trying to have fun no matter what. Wins, losses, tough travel, tough schedule right now, just trying to enjoy it all. That’s the secret sometimes. We’re finding ways to get points different ways, 1-0 or a high-scoring game, but we’ll take the 2-1s as well.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Sunday evening’s game, with photos taken by ALOST photo editor Ross James. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 28 pictures in total.
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