Matt Murray made 23 saves in his season debut and recorded his first NHL shutout in his fourth career start to help the Dallas Stars to a 4-0 win over the Minnesota Wild on Monday night in St. Paul, Minn.
Murray was recalled from Texas of the American Hockey League last Tuesday and started over Scott Wedgewood, who had manned the crease the previous 11 games. Dallas has also been without No. 1 goalie Jake Oettinger since he sustained a lower-body injury on Dec. 15.
Tyler Seguin and Roope Hintz each had a goal and an assist, and Hintz and Radek Faksa scored short-handed for the Stars, who ended a season-long three-game losing streak.
Minnesota goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was denied the 552nd victory of his NHL career, which would have moved him past Patrick Roy for sole possession of second place for the most wins by a goalie in league history.
Fleury made 16 saves for the Wild, who have lost five of six.
In addition to giving up two short-handed goals, Minnesota’s power play went 0 for 6 against the fourth-best penalty-kill unit in the NHL (85 percent).
Minnesota outshot the Stars 12-4 in the first period and had three power-play opportunities, but Dallas scored the lone goal.
Seguin and Wild defenseman Brock Faber battled for possession to the left of the goal after a long clear and Seguin managed to backhand a pass to Hintz cutting into the slot. He scored with a one-timer for a 1-0 lead at 9:16.
Fleury made a flashy glove save on Sam Steel’s backhand from in close at 4:53 of the second period to keep it a one-goal deficit.
Seguin made it 2-0 at 1:28 of the third when his shot from the right circle squeezed through Fleury’s pads and slid across the goal line. The puck was quickly swept out and play briefly continued until the horn blew seconds later and the goal was confirmed after a video review.
Steel fed Faksa on a two-on-one rush while short-handed and he finished it to extend the lead to 3-0 at 8:22.
Jason Robertson made it 4-0 with a power-play goal at 9:57.
–Field Level Media
