Dallas Stars roll past Minnesota 4-0 in playoff opener

Radek Faksa didn’t look like a guy with rookie playoff nerves on the ice. He looked like a veteran playing for the top-seeded team in the Western Conference.

Faksa and the Stars showed patience when things weren’t going their way early on, and the floodgates eventually opened in a 4-0 victory over the Minnesota Wild in the Western Conference quarterfinals series opener on Thursday.

Dallas has an early 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series with Game 2 scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday at the American Airlines Center. Faksa, Jason Spezza, Patrick Eaves and Jamie Benn all scored for the Stars, as goalie Kari Lehtonen pitched his second career shutout in the playoffs.

It all started with Faksa, who found himself open on a breakaway early in the second period and fired it cleanly past Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk for the series’ first goal.

Faksa admitted nerves going into his first playoff game, but maybe that helped him with a simplistic mindset when the puck found him.

As he said, “Well, I was wide open on the high slot and I shot it and it went in. … Big goal for us because it started us off. After that we kind of controlled the game.”

Yes they did, particularly after a frustrating first period where nothing seemed to go their way. The Stars opened the game with plenty of scoring opportunities, at times from point-blank range, but never capitalized.

The Stars finished the first period with 12 more shots on goal than the Wild (14-2) with nothing to show for it.

But the Stars stayed patient and kept attacking, breaking through on Faksa’s goal.

Faksa, the Stars’ 2012 first-round pick, had been set up perfectly by forward Ales Hemsky. Hemsky had stolen the puck around center ice and then fed a charging Faska in the slot for an uncontested shot with 16:07 left in the second period.

Dallas stayed on the offensive after that.

Hemsky had a chance on a breakaway opportunity a few minutes later that Dubnyk broke up by making a gutsy call to leave the crease and deflect away.

But Dubnyk had no chance when Spezza got an open look with 7:43 left.

Spezza faked a slap shot that Dubnyk bit on, leaving an opening on the short side that Spezza didn’t miss to make it 2-0. It marked the first playoff goal by Spezza since April 2012 when he was with the Ottawa Senators.

“I thought the Spezza play was a special one,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said.

Said Spezza: “I’ve scored a few there [on the short side high]. I just kind of take what’s open. I have had really good looks. Dubnyk is a big goalie and he made some big saves tonight.”

The Stars added a couple more goals for good measure in the third period. Eaves buried a rebound with 5:44 left, a goal that stood following a Wild challenge, and Benn sent in an empty-netter a couple minutes later.

That proved to be more than enough cushion for Lehtonen, who pitched a shutout for the third time this season.

“Of course happy about the result,” Lehtonen said after stopping 22 shots. “I’ll just keep working. It’s just the first game, so we’re not too far yet.”

No decision has been made as to whether Lehtonen will start Game 2, although it may be difficult for Ruff to keep a goalie on the bench following a shutout.

“He did a great job for us tonight with the saves and his puck handling helped relieve pressure,” Ruff said.

Regardless of the Lehtonen decisions, all that mattered was starting the series with a win. The 4-0 score looks impressive, but nobody in the locker room felt this series is over.

“It wasn’t that easy,” Faksa said. “It was a very hard game.”

This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 12:07 AM with the headline "Dallas Stars roll past Minnesota 4-0 in playoff opener."