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Rookie Miro Heiskanen leads Stars in upset win over Predators

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Dallas picks up a road win vs. Nashville in Game 1 behind two goals from Miro Heiskanen.

The Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators have no shortage of defensive stars, so it seems appropriate that defensemen also drove the offense in Dallas’ 3-2 win over Nashville in Game 1. Among them all, it was rookie blueliner Miro Heiskanen who came out on top with two goals.

Roman Josi got Nashville on the board first and that was the only goal going into the first intermission. Heiskanen answered back with a power-play goal in the second period and then gave the Stars a 2-1 lead at 6:10 of the third. Heiskanen was one of the league’s top rookies this season. In addition to contributing 12 goals and 33 points in 82 contests, he logged 23:07 minutes per game. After a campaign like that, Stars coach Jim Montgomery didn’t shy away from leaning on Heiskanen in his playoff debut. Only Nashville’s Josi and Dallas’ Esa Lindell spent more time on the ice in Game 1.
[NBC 2019 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF HUB]

Mats Zuccarello scored the first goal of the series contributed by a forward at 10:39 of the third period. It has to be particularly satisfying to the Stars to see him score, especially after he barely played for them in the regular season due to injury. He suffered a broken arm in his first game with Dallas after being acquired from the Rangers.

Predators defenseman PK Subban cut the lead in half to make it interesting and a late holding penalty on Mattias Janmark gave Nashville a good chance to tie the contest. The Stars managed to stay strong though and Ben Bishop was solid when he needed to be, making 30 saves on the night.

The pressure is now on the favored Predators to bounce back and ultimately to win one in Dallas, where the Stars were 24-14-3 in the regular season.

Stars-Predators Game 2 from Bridgestone Arena will be Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. ET on CNBC

Ryan Dadoun is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @RyanDadoun.