DALLAS _ At this rate, the Stars might deserve a share of the Vezina Trophy no matter who wins it.
After propping up the save percentages of some of the best goalies in the league in their first five games, Dallas helped 21-year-old Arizona rookie Adin Hill to an impressive debut Tuesday at American Airlines Center.
Hill stopped 33 shots and allowed two goals in a 3-1 Stars win.
That means opposing goalies have a .941 save percentage against the Stars this season.
Yikes.
Dallas was able to wear down Colorado's Semyon Varlamov on Saturday in a 3-1 win that included an empty-net goal for the Stars, but Varlamov has been a Vezina finalist in the past. Hill was starting for the Coyotes because No. 1 goalie Antti Raanta is dealing with a lower body injury and backup goalie Louis Domingue has a 4.55 GAA and.862 save percentage.
Arizona entered the game with the worst goals against average in the NHL at 4.40 and worst save percentage at .873. But it seems playing the Stars is tonic for even the worst goaltending dilemmas.
Hill, a third round draft pick in 2015 who hails from Calgary, had his family fly in for the game.
Dallas once again dominated puck possession and had a 25-13 advantage in shots on goal after two periods. But as they have done for much of this season, the Stars struggled in the third period as they tried to hold tight to a 2-1 lead.
Dallas got a couple of hard-working goals from the depth scorers, and that seemed to be enough. Ben Bishop was solid in net for the Stars, coming up with crucial saves on Lawson Crouse and Derek Stepan to allow his shooters the chance to go after Hill.
Mattias Janmark created the first opportunity, as he swooped in from the left wing and circled around the net in an attempt to score a wrap-around goal. Hill came up with the save, but Radek Faksa fought for space and then chipped in his first goal of the season off the rebound just five minutes into the game.
Dan Hamhuis made it 2-0 in the second period, and the Stars seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. The line of Faksa, Tyler Pitlick and Antoine Roussel had a great shift, controlling a cycle in the offensive zone, and when Pitlick rolled off the boards and skated up the goal line out of the corner, Hamhuis was wide open to sneak in the back door.
He lifted in his second goal in 83 games with the Stars, and it seemed that maybe Dallas had finally gotten to Hill.
But four minutes later, former Stars defenseman Jason Demers was able to beat Bishop over the glove, and the chase was on. Arizona won the possession battle in the third period.
The top line of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov continues to be frustrated at even strength, and Hitchcock broke them up at times, but Radulov scored his first goal in a Stars' uniform into an empty net to seal the game in the final minute and push the Stars to 3-3-0. Arizona falls to 0-5-1.
"There's a lot of chasing the game going on," Hitchcock said of the top line. "They're either on the forecheck or they're on the backcheck.
"What I think we need to work on is staying on the hunt longer," Hitchcock said, referencing the entire team. "Those are the chances that we're not getting. We're getting a lot of original chances, we're getting a lot of bang plays at the net, but the hunt plays where you check the puck back again and again, we need to be better in that area."
