Minnesota Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury looks on during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Dallas Stars, Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)
Murray earns first career shutout, Stars score two short-handed goals in 4-0 win at Minnesota
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Matt Murray stopped 23 shots for his first career NHL shutout, and Dallas scored two short-handed goals to snap a three-game losing streak with a 4-0 win at Minnesota on Monday night.
Minnesota Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury looks on during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Dallas Stars, Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Matt Murray stopped 23 shots for his first career NHL shutout, and Dallas scored two short-handed goals to snap a three-game losing streak with a 4-0 win at Minnesota on Monday night.
Murray earned his second NHL victory in his fourth career game. The undrafted 25-year-old from Alberta played five years of college hockey at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, winning a national championship in 2021.
“Obviously, playing in the NHL is one thing; it’s every kids dream, but to be able to get a shutout is on a level of its own,” Murray said. “I’m ecstatic.”
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Tyler Seguin and Roope Hintz each had a goal and an assist for Dallas.
“Spectacular,” Seguin said of Murray. “I’m sure he’s been dreaming about a moment like this his whole life.”
The Stars’ fourth-best in the NHL penalty kill (85.7%) was perfect on six Wild power-play opportunities.
Including an 8-3 victory on Nov. 12, Dallas (23-11-5) has scored nine special-teams goals in two contests against Minnesota (17-18-4) this season.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 16 saves but missed in his first chance to pass Patrick Roy for sole possession of second place on the NHL's career wins list. Fleury had tied Roy with his 551st victory Saturday at Columbus.
With the Wild on the power play, Hintz one-timed a no-look, backhanded pass from Seguin past Fleury at 10:44 mark of the first period. Hintz has 14 points in his last nine games against Minnesota and leads the Stars with 16 goals.
Radek Faksa added a second short-handed goal 8:22 into the third. It was Dallas' ninth short-handed goal of the season, tied for second in the league. Jason Robertson added the final goal.
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After Hintz's score, the Stars killed Minnesota's 47-second, 5-on-3 advantage and emerged from the first leading 1-0 despite being outshot 13-4.
“I think we needed a good goaltending performance on the road,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “We lost a couple, and this is always a tough building to play in. Really, the first period was the game. (The Wild) came out really hard. ... I thought they could have had two or three if (Murray) wasn’t ready to play. He was our best player by far in the first period.”
Early in the third, Seguin's wrist shot from the right point snuck under Fleury's right arm pit and was initially ruled a no-goal. But the video goal judge overturned the call, and it was 2-0 just 1:28 into the final period.
Injury-plagued Minnesota did get Marcus Foligno back after a two-game absence. Goalie Filip Gustavsson, defensemen Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon, and forwards Kirill Kaprizov and Vinni Lettieri all remained unavailable Monday.
“I don’t think it was an effort issue ... I think we’re ready to play,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “You’ve got to play hard, but you can only get so far when you play hard; you’ve got to play smart, too.”
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