Stars’ Antti Niemi did something no goalie has ever done before

The Penguins lost the special-teams battle in a big way, going 0-for-3 on the power play and giving up two goals in five shorthanded situations. The veteran improves to 5-1-1 in his career against Pittsburgh, and is well on his way to helping his new team improve their 29th ranked save percentage from last season. Janmark pulled the trigger on a shot that slid through the five hole of Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who was sliding to his right to adjust to the play.

While not entirely free of errors of commission and omission, the Stars’ paid better attention to two-way play in the opener than they did for much of past year and the preseason.

Ales Hemsky, who had a disappointing and injury-marred first season with the Stars in 2014-15, set up the game’s first goal and later scored one. Kessel and the Pens had several quality shots, especially near the end of the game, but were unable to solve Niemi.

“I had a good game against him, and then we went into Pittsburgh the next game I was two or three steps behind”, Eakin said.

It wasn’t for a lack of chances, as the Penguins outshot Dallas 37-24.

Fleury finished with 21 saves.

Seven seconds into the Stars’ fourth power play of the third period, Jamie Benn tipped in Jason Spezza’s shot from the right point.

Hemsky put the Stars up 2-0 at the 5:42 mark of the second period, when he took a pass from former Penguins defenseman Alex Goligoksi and skated down the right wing into the Penguins zone. “My first game, and to get that start, I never dreamed of that”. Niemi’s best stop was a reaching glove save of Rod Scuderi’s drive from the blue line with less than 3 minutes remaining. And the Stars wasted little time, making it 2-0 just 45 seconds later when Hemsky beat Fleury high on his blocker side with a wrister from the right point.

NOTES: Dallas acquired Janmark as part of a March trade that sent Erik Cole to Detroit. Contributing to that frustration is the fact that Mike Johnston still doesn’t seem to get it. When the team is losing late in the game, the captain, who is only the most revered player in the league, should not be buried in the half-boards.

Niemi won his lone Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010, alongside current Dallas Stars teammate Patrick Sharp. “We battled hard to get a few pucks back, which keeps the power play alive”.

The Penguins’ No. 1 line, which has Crosby between Chris Kunitz and Phil Kessel, accounted for nine of the Penguins’ shot, six of them by Kessel.