How have the Dallas Stars prospects done in this past week of hockey? Defending Big D is committed to to giving you weekly updates as their seasons progress.
North American Juniors and NCAA
OHL
The first two games of the OHL"s finals begun this week with Aaron Haydon (Niagara IceDogs) facing off against Chris Martenet (London Knights).
The first two games of the series were a one-sided affair as the Knights took a 2-0 series lead.
Both Haydon and Martenet went pointless as the Knights beat the Icedogs 4-1 on Thursday and 6-1 on Saturday. Highlights of Thursday"s game can be foundhere and highlights of Saturday"s game can be foundhere.
Chris Martenet has still not registered a point in the playoffs for the London Knights. Haydon finished a combined minus three through the first two games of the series.
Game three is on Monday evening.
Post Season
Team
GP
Goals
Assists
Points
PIMs
+/-
North American Juniors/NCAA
OHL
Aaron Haydon (D)
Niagara IceDogs
15
2
2
4
12
3
Chris Martenet (D)
London Knights
16
0
0
0
4
5
Patrick Sanvido (D)
Windsor Spitfires
5
0
1
1
0
-5
Sweden
SHL
Niklas Hansson (D)
HV71
6
0
0
0
0
1
Allsvenskan
John Nyberg (D)
Oskarshamn
5
0
0
0
0
-3
Sweden Juniors
John Nyberg (D)
Frolunda J20
3
0
3
3
6
4
Finland
Liiga
Roope Hintz (C)
HIFK
18
2
4
6
2
2
Russia
KHL
Dmitry Sinitsyn (D)
Dynamo Moscow
1
0
0
0
0
0
North American Professional Leagues:
Post Season:
X indicates that a player is currently with the Dallas Stars
By Tim Cowlishaw , Staff Columnist Contact Tim Cowlishaw on Twitter:
For 82 games, the Stars" two-headed goaltending plan seemed to be, if not quite the stuff of genius, at the very least a working system that kept both Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen fresh heading into the playoffs.
Five games into the postseason, the Stars still haven"t wrapped up the first round. And while all sorts of defensive breakdowns contributed to Friday"s 5-4 overtime loss at the AAC, uncertainty in netis now very much a factor as Dallas heads back to Minnesota.
Are the Stars gearing up for a second goaltending change in the first round? That"s rarely a good sign.
But Dallas has given up 12 goals to the Wild in the last three games. That should never happen. Minnesota lacks anything approaching the firepower that the Stars possess. Their leading scorer, Zach Parise, scored 53 points which would have ranked sixth in Dallas. And he hasn"t played a minute in this series.
Lehtonen surrendered five (technically four plus an empty-netter) in a 5-3 loss to Minnesota in St. Paul that cut the Stars" series advantage to 2-1. At than point I was all in favor of giving Niemi the opportunity for Game 4 even though a lot of folks around this team thought it was too soon to pull the plug on Lehtonen.
I didn"t see it as pulling the plug or a benching. Coach Lindy Ruff was simply going from 1 to 1A.
And Niemi was excellent in the third period of Game 4 Wednesday when the Stars appeared to take control of this series with a 3-2 win. Dallas didn"t put a single shot on net in the last 15 minutes of the game, letting the defense and Niemi preserve the victory that set the stage for Friday night.
A sellout crowd of 18,889 was ready to lend full voice to a first-round triumph, to witness the traditional handshake line that would send the Wild home and the Stars on to play the winner of the Blues and Blackhawks in the second round.
It didn"t happen.
Dallas held a 4-3 lead for nearly eight minutes of the third period before Mikko Koivu put the puck past Niemi to tie the score with 3:09 left in regulation. Just 4:55 into overtime, it was Koivu again, redirecting a Ryan Suter shot past Niemi for the game-winner.
Like I said, there were plenty of fingers to point at the defense, in particular the top pair of Alex Goligoski and John Klingberg. But at the same time, the last line of defense has to just show up and make a big save from time to time and that never happened with Niemi Friday.
The Wild won this game, scoring five goals on just 24 shots. Those aren"t numbers that Niemi are any other solid NHL goaltender should surrender. At the opposite end, Devan Dubnyk stopped 37 of the Stars" 41 shots, silencing the "Doob-Nick" chants and extending this series for at least another 60 minutes.
Going home with a 3-1 lead and wrapping up a series in Game Five doesn"t sound like it should be an arduous task. But that"s exactly what it has become in these playoffs.
It wasn"t terribly surprising that St. Louis didn"t finish off Chicago Thursday night at home. The Blackhawks are three-time Stanley Cup champs over the last six years for a reason, and they went to double overtime before Patrick Kane preserved their season for a couple more days.
A much bigger surprise came in Washington Friday where the Capitals figured to close the lid on the the season for the young Philadelphia Flyers. Not so fast. Michal Neuvirth stopped everything in sight -- 44 shots -- for a 2-0 victory to push the East"s top seed to a Game Six back in Philly.
As for the Stars, they had trouble immediately. Down 2-0 to the Wild just 5:16 into the game? Are you serious?
Dallas spent much of the rest of the game playing catchup, getting a huge tying goal from Jason Spezza, their hottest player, to make it 3-3 with just under 12 minutes left in regulation. And 28 seconds later, a slap shot from Goligoski made it 4-3 Dallas and had the sellout crowd waving those towels and ready to pocket a victory and move on to the next round.
The Wild never quit. They aren"t close to the offensive team that the Stars are, and yet it"s Minnesota that has reached the 5-goal mark twice in the last five days. Dallas hasn"t done it yet in this series.
And a competitive series is exactly whatthe Stars have on their hands now.
