At last, the moment Smashville had been waiting for all summer: the home-ice debut of offseason acquisitions Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault.
Scott Wedgewood got the start tonight, with Juuse Saros out due to injury. Dallas’s Mason Marchment took the game’s first penalty, giving the Preds a power play at 1:51. The first unit didn’t really seem to have adjusted to playing together yet, though the second unit got some better looks and the Preds kept the momentum going for a while after that.
Alexandre Carrier, however, was the next to take a penalty, heading to the box for cross-checking. The Preds’ penalty kill did some great work, intercepting the puck and bringing it up the ice to make Jake Oettinger stay alert in net. The first-period special teams continued as Nils Lundkvist headed to the box, then Stamkos cut the Preds’ power play short by taking a penalty of his own.
The Preds got that penalty killed off, but Marchessault opted to make his mark on the scoresheet the same way as Stamkos had, with an extended Stars 6-on-5 followed by the actual power play to finish up the period. The whistle came at a good time for Nashville, which had made some strong plays before getting hemmed in, and the Stars’ remaining power play time resumed after intermission.
While the Stars didn’t get a goal with the rest of their power play, they notched two not long after — at 2:05 and 2:24 — as the Preds weren’t able to take the game back once Marchessault emerged from the box. Nashville finally got some help when Sam Steel ended the Stars’ momentum by high-sticking Luke Evangelista; their first power play unit connected on a Filip Forsberg goal to stem the bleeding and get the home team on the board.
The special teams weren’t over yet, though, as the Preds were whistled for too many men on the ice a few minutes later, and some good passing and awareness from the Stars let Marchment score to make it 3-1. Evangelista then drew his second penalty of the period, this one on Matt Dumba, giving Nashville another chance to get it back. Unfortunately, this time Nashville declined the opportunity.
They piled on the pressure after that, though, setting up shop in the Stars’ end and forcing Oettinger to work to maintain the Stars’ lead, before a misread by the Preds’ Brady Skjei and a series of attempts to recover that were off by inches let Marchment score his second of the period. 4-1 Dallas at 18:15.
While Dumba took another penalty to finish off the period, the Preds were again unable to convert, either before or after intermission. However, Tommy Novak again narrowed the gap — with a great assist from Evangelista — to make it 4-2 at 4:37 of the third. The next penalty came three minutes later, when the Stars committed a too-many-men of their own, but while Novak rang iron the Preds weren’t able to score again.
As the teams entered the second half of the third period, the Preds crashed the net, but weren’t able to do anything there. Hostilities broke out behind Wedgewood, but no penalties were called. The Preds continued to push, but weren’t able to get anywhere. With around three minutes to go, Ryan O’Reilly got hit up high in a scuffle behind the net but the refs didn’t notice, and the Preds pulled Wedgewood for the extra skater.
O’Reilly, still out on the ice, cut the Stars’ lead to one after the Preds forced an icing — thanks to another savvy assist from Marchessault, who’d also set up Forsberg for Nashville’s first goal — and rang iron with a little under a minute left, and Stamkos hit another post with fifteen seconds to go hard enough that it sounded like a fairground bell, but that was it for the Preds for the night.