DeSmith makes 30 saves, Stars defeat Kraken

DALLAS -- Casey DeSmith made 30 saves for the Dallas Stars in a 2-1 win against the Seattle Kraken at American Airlines Center on Sunday.

“Every win feels great,” DeSmith said. “There are no bad teams in this league. Every game is hard, and you have to earn it. Thankfully, we got four points on the weekend in another back-to-back (Dallas won 5-4 at the Nashville Predators on Saturday). That’s great.”

Tyler Seguin and Wyatt Johnston scored for Dallas (9-4-3), which is 6-1-3 in its past 10 games. Miro Heiskanen had two assists to extend his point streak to four games (one goal, eight assists).

“No question, I thought [DeSmith] was outstanding tonight and made some big saves. Certainly, he would be our first star,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “I really liked our penalty kill (3-for-3), guys sacrificing there, blocking shots. [Ilya Lyubushkin], [Colin Blackwell] trying to get the job done and push it over the line. It’s not really the back-to-backs that concern me, it’s these three-in-fours, and I could tell for the first time tonight that we started to look a little bit fatigued. So, it’s good to get the points. Kudos to [DeSmith], too.”

Jaden Schwartz scored for Seattle (7-4-4), which was coming off a 4-3 overtime win at the St. Louis Blues on Saturday but is 2-2-2 in its past six games. Matt Murray made 22 saves.

“That was a good hockey game from us. We probably win that game nine times out of ten. Tonight wasn't the night,” Kraken coach Lane Lambert said. “Their goaltender played very well. I thought everybody on our team made an impact for the most part. I thought we had enough chances to win the hockey game. Our compete level was high.”

Schwartz gave Seattle a 1-0 lead at 3:15 of the first period, deflecting Adam Larsson's shot from the point over the right shoulder of DeSmith.

“We played well, there were a lot of chances. It was a tight checking game,” Schwartz said. “It was fast and always a battle when you play these guys. We had our looks and chances. Our goalie and their goalie played good.”

Johnston tied it 1-1 at 4:24 with a power-play goal. He took a pass from Jason Robertson at the top of the crease, curled the puck to his forehand, and slid it under the glove of Murray.

The goal extended his point streak to five games (four goals, six assists).

Seguin gave Dallas a 2-1 lead at 19:26 of the first. He knocked the puck through the skates of Seattle defenseman Ryan Lindgren on a rush before sliding a backhand past the right pad of a sprawling Murray.

“That was pretty exciting,” Seguin said. “I’m waking up every day and trying to have fun no matter what. Wins, losses, tough travel, tough schedule right now, just trying to enjoy it all. That’s the secret sometimes. We’re finding ways to get points different ways, 1-0 or a high-scoring game, but we’ll take the 2-1s as well.”

DeSmith kept it a one-goal game by making a pad stop on a shot from the low slot by Kraken forward Mason Marchment at 16:04 of the third period. Marchment played 17:56 and had four shots on goal in his first game against Dallas since being traded to Seattle on June 19.

“It was fun,” Marchment said. “It was good to get the juices going again. We thought we played a great game against a great team, and Matt Murray played great tonight. It’s a tough loss but we’ll build off this for next time.”