– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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DALLAS — One of the top lines in the National Hockey League was at it again on Saturday, and one of its members, Dallas Stars’ center Roope Hintz, wasted no time in making sure the Stars got off to a perfect start to the new season under their new head coach.
Hintz scored within the first five minutes of the start of both the first and second periods, leading Dallas to a 5-1 victory over the Nashville Predators as the Stars swept the home-and-home series with Nashville to begin the season. Hintz and Jason Robertson each scored three points while the duo’s linemate, Joe Pavelski, had two assists. Jake Oettinger made 30 saves as the Stars outscored the Predators 9-2 in the two games combined.
For the second consecutive game, the Stars’ special teams scored in the first period, but unlike their power play goal late in the first period at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday, Hintz tallied a shorthanded goal at 4:46 of the first first to open up the scoring on Saturday. Only coming on from off the bench seconds prior, Hintz stripped the puck from Predators defenseman Roman Josi before heading up the ice on a breakaway after defenseman Miro Heiskanen came up with the loose puck after the Nashville turnover. Hintz then scored on a wrist shot that beat Nashville goalkeeper Juuse Saros.
Each member of the high-scoring trio got a piece of the Stars’ second goal just 39 seconds into the second period, as Robertson’s touch pass to Pavelski created a 2-on-1 with Hintz, and after Pavelski passed it off to Hintz, the latter’s return pass hit off the glove hand of Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm and steered through the five hole of Saros to double the Stars’ advantage.
Heiskanen added a goal to extend the Stars’ lead to 3-0 at 7:48 of the second before Nino Niederreiter tallied his league-leading fourth goal of the season with 1:40 remaining in the second for Nashville’s only goal of the game.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Saturday evening’s game, with all photos taken by Dallas-area photographer Ross James. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 32 pictures in total.
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