The Dallas Stars put up a strong defensive showing during the regular season, which saw the team finish just behind the New York Islanders in goals allowed. While Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin did a good job keeping pucks out of the net, the team as a whole still let plenty of shots through (31.6 shots allowed per game).
That’s continued into their Round 1 matchup against the Nashville Predators. As the series is split 1-1 with Game 3 Monday night in Dallas (9:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN; Live stream), Bishop’s been stingy in net, allowing four goals through two games, but the Stars as a whole have allowed 74 shots so far and 101 even strength shot attempts.
Five of those shots for came in overtime during Game 2, with the winner coming off Craig Smith’s stick after five minutes.
“They’re difficult to generate against,” said Predators head coach Peter Laviolette. “Good team defense, they have good goaltending, and our team is built a lot of the same way, and so that probably leads itself to some low-scoring games. We’re able to get one in overtime, and it was a big goal to tie and crack one in overtime. The difference between 2-0 and 1-1 is a big difference especially going on the road.”
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While Nashville has done a fine job creating chances on Bishop, they’ve also done good through two games at limiting the Stars’ opportunities on Pekka Rinne. Via Natural Stat Trick, Dallas has 70 attempts at 5-on-5 through two games and their power play was fruitless in Game 2, failing to capitalize on all six of their opportunities.
“When you go 0-for-6, a couple good chances, but you got to come through,” said Stars head coach Jim Montgomery. “Need to think shot-first. I thought we were all looking for the next play instead of looking to score. That’s power play, but also 5-on-5. I thought we passed up too many shots.”
Both games have been decided by a single goal, a trend that wouldn’t be surprising if it continued for the rest of the series.
“We kind of expected it with these two defensive teams,” said Stars forward Tyler Seguin after Game 2. “It was a grind game, it was a hard, compete game. We’ve done a pretty good job at keeping them to the perimeter. We’re expecting, maybe, a little different game now that we’re going home. We’re going to have the juices going for sure.”
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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.