Oettinger, Stars edge St Louis on skills, 2-1 Goalie battle ends on skills

In Dallas, the Stars upended the St Louis Blues on Thursday night, in a 2-1 decision after the skills competition.

“It was a hard-fought game,” Dallas’ Matt Duchene said. “Really tough game, lot of skating. They played really well. They’re a fast team, they’re stingy, they break out really well, they’re hard to forecheck, and they got great goaltending tonight.

“We kind of got better as the game went on. Third period was a really good period, had some good looks. Could have ended in OT, fortunately got it done in the shootout.”

It was the first game for both clubs of the new season.

Jake Oettinger made 23 saves in the win for Dallas.

“It was a fun game. I thought [Binnington] was unreal,” Oettinger said. “Probably should have won that game in regulation but he held them in it. I felt like we deserved to win. You don’t always win those games but just happy it turned out for us.”

Jamie Benn scored with 18 seconds of fresh ice used in the middle frame to give the Stars a 1-0 lead.

Wyatt Johnston and Ty Dellandrea assisted on the Benn goal.

“They got shots, they’re going to get shots,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. “But I thought for the most part we did a good job of keeping it on the outside and protecting that slot area. Getting in there on rebounds and not letting second or third opportunities happen.”

St Louis got even at 1-1 when Tyler Tucker’s shot went through traffic in front of the net at 3:27 of the second period.

Sammy Blais and Jakub Vrana picked up the helpers on Tucker’s strike.

“Both goalies were outstanding. [Jordan Binnington] was great, but so was [Oettinger],” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “Jake made some key saves in the second period. We just about self-destructed there with turnovers and penalties, and he bailed us out when we were doing that.”

Binnington made 34 saves in the Blues loss.

“Overtime, it’s just compete out there,” Binnington said. “Play free and compete out there is the mindset. It’s a 2-on-1 scenario, shoot or pass, kind of a desperation play there. It was good.”