National Hockey League: Dallas beats Edmonton despite McDavid’s first goal

The wait is over for Connor McDavid, and perhaps all National Hockey League fans, as the Edmonton Oilers rookie centre scored his first goal as a pro on Tuesday night.

The game turned after Lethtonen, who made his first start of the season, made a heads-up save a quarter way through the final frame.

“Well, the second goal felt good because we were coming to get the lead back”, Spezza said. “(That was) the type of game we need to win, the type of game that probably past year would have went the other way.

A hat trick by Jason Spezza – including the game-winning goal in the third period and topped off by an empty netter – led the way offensively for Dallas.

Anders Nilsson made 48 saves in his first appearance for Edmonton, but he couldn’t stop Spezza when the Dallas forward took a dump-off pass from Antoine Roussel in the slot.

The pivotal play of the game came at the 15:19 mark of the third period. “Once we get a little more rhythm and execution on the power play, get a sense of where we need to be and what we’re trying to accomplish, we’ll have more opportunities there to score”.

On Thursday, they’ll take on the young Oilers for the second time this year, having already beaten them once by a score of 3-1 in last week’s regular season opener.

Then, McDavid scored by deflecting in a shot by defenseman Andrej Sekera past beat Lehtonen at the far post. “It’s something that I’ll remember for the rest of my life”. “But like you said, obviously, not the way you want to end that game but pretty special to get it right away”. He finished minus-1 with three shots in 16:20 of ice time.

The quick scoring burst ended a 90-minute home scoreless streak to start the season for the Stars, who got a shutout from Niemi in the season opener.

Elias Lindholm scored for Carolina in the second period, and Eddie Lack made 22 saves in his first start of the season.

“There’s nothing you can do about those first two goals”, said head coach Lindy Ruff. “I said I have to be patient”. I mean, just look at how the Hall-McDavid-Slepyshev line has performed. “There was nothing he could do about the first two goals”. Team captain Jamie Benn tallied an early second-period goal to give the Stars a short-lived 2-0 lead.

The only dark spot on the night was an injury to Patrick Eaves. On Tuesday night, they were able to salvage their play and pull off an impressive 4-2 win over the Oilers, with thanks mainly going to the stick of Jason Spezza.

New Jersey has lost all three if its games, leaving the tandem of general manager Ray Shero and coach John Hynes looking for their first wins since taking over in the off season.

The Stars had 52 shots, their most since February 3, 1990, in a 7-6 loss to Philadelphia.