In Nashville, the Dallas Stars stunned the Predators, 3-2, for a 1-0 series lead.
Mats Zuccarello picked up the game-winner when he made the score 3-1 midway through the third period.
“You have to expect they’re going to come out hard, first [Stanley Cup] Playoff game of the year,” Stars defenseman John Klingberg said. “They’re the favorites and they were into it, and I think we settled in pretty good. We weren’t happy with our first period, but we settled pretty good, and then we just took over the game. That’s exactly how we wanted to play, and we did a good job.”
Ben Bishop made 30 saves to get the win.
“You know, early, I guess I would say I’m not surprised anymore, but it’s truly impressive,” Bishop said. “He plays like he’s been in the League for 10 years. Just goes about his business quietly and efficiently, and like I said before, this guy’s going to be a star in this league for a long time.”
Roman Josi scored early for the Preds for a 1-0 lead before the Stars reeled off three straight goals.
“I think you’ve got to keep pushing,” Josi said. “I think we could’ve played better in the second, had more of a push and keep going for that second goal. They’re a good team over there. You can never count them out of it. You’ve got to play even better in the second and get that next goal.”
P.K. Subban stopped the Dallas run with a goal at 13:24 of the third but the Preds could not close the gap to force overtime.
“Some of it’s unlucky bounces, but obviously we’ve got to stay out of the box,” Subban said. “That’s going to be one thing that we’re going to want to improve on next game. It just kind of puts a lot of pressure on our penalty-killers to be out there.”
Rookie Miro Heiskanen had two strikes for the Stars who wrested home ice away from the Predators.
“It feels pretty good,” Heiskanen said. “It was a great atmosphere here. It feels great to play and a great win for us.”
[WATCH: Stars vs. Predators Game 1 highlights | Complete series coverage]
Pekka Rinne made saves in the loss.
“I think we played a simple game. I thought we put it behind them. I thought we forechecked very hard, and we were relentless with our game,” the Predators’ Mattias Ekholm said. “I thought we were on a good level. I thought we could’ve probably scored a few more to be honest, and then the second period wasn’t close to that.”
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