In Dallas, Joseph Woll made 31 saves, and Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Stars, 4-1 on Thursday night. 
“He made a couple of massive saves,” the Leafs’ Mitchell Marner said about Woll’s performance. “He made a couple of big ones on our penalty kill for a couple of tip plays and stuff like that and didn’t give up a whole lot of second opportunities. Something you love to see from your [goaltender], and he’s been playing some great hockey for us.”
Mason Marchment was the lone striker for the Stars.
“I think [Wedgewood] kept us in in a lot of that game and he played great,” Marchment said. “We had a lot of chances, just, they didn’t fall.”
Morgan Rielly scored midway through the first period to stake the Maple Leafs to a 1-0 lead.
“I think it starts with the first period. I think if you look at our previous games up until this point, I don’t think we’ve started the way that we want to,” Rielly said. “So, I think that was probably the biggest difference from the start. And then as we got going, I thought we did a good job, especially in the third.”
Marchment tied it 1-1. at 11:17 of the middle frame.
“I think the second period tonight was the best period we’ve probably played all year,” Dallas’ Matt Duchene said. “We haven’t been overly dangerous offensively for sustained time, and we looked really good there. We need more of that and to try and put 60 minutes of as much of that together as we can, and we’ll get rewarded. We have too much talent on this team not to.”
Marner scored at 18:07 of the second to give the Maple Leafs a 2-1 lead.
“I just thought we spent a lot of time on their half of the ice, and we didn’t have to get a whole lot from our defense in the first period,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Then, as it turned out, we needed our [defensemen] too much in the second and third period. I just thought we had enough gas in the tank because of the way we played in the first. Those guys grinded.
“You knew here in this building that their team was going to push, and they did, and obviously we didn’t break.”
Tyler Bertuzzi made it 3-1 at 5:08 of the third. His goal came off the power play to break a stretch of 17 straight penalty kills for the Stars.
“Just keep moving forward. We’ll stick together. We’re a good team in here,” Stars forward Craig Smith said. “We can generate chances. You see the zone time at times and puck possession and just being hungry on the puck, we’re creating a lot of good chances.”
John Tavares hit for a late empty-net goal for the 4-1 final.
“That’s a really good team over there, and they haven’t lost in regulation yet, so I think that was a big win for us,” Woll said. “Playing a Stanley Cup contender like that, I thought we came out in the first and played really hard, and then shut it down in the third.”
Scott Wedgewood made 20 saves in the Dallas loss.
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