Miro Heiskanen did what the Dallas Stars needed most after a blank opening night: he scored first, and he scored fast. Forty-seven seconds into Saturday's game at Bridgestone Arena, Heiskanen buried a wrist shot blocker side on Juuse Saros after Mikko Rantanen found him in the right circle following a net-front scramble.
That was the entire Dallas offense for the evening. Nashville answered with two first-period power-play goals and held on for a 2-1 win, dropping the Stars to 0-2-0, according to NHL.com.
Connection that could not multiply
The Rantanen-to-Heiskanen sequence was clean. Saros stopped the initial chaos; Rantanen moved the puck; Heiskanen finished. Wyatt Johnston, who assisted on the goal, extended his point streak against the Predators to four games with two goals and four assists in that span, NHL.com notes said. On paper, Dallas had its top pieces touching the scoresheet before the game was a minute old.
None of it compounded. Steven Stamkos tied the game at 4:46 on the power play off Ryan O'Reilly's feed. Nils Hoglander put Nashville ahead 2-1 at 15:49 on a deflection of Jack Ahcan's point shot. From 0:47 on, the Stars' best forwards and their highest-paid defenseman were chasing rather than building.
Coach Glen Gulutzan told NHL.com Dallas did not get going in the first period, gradually slowed Nashville's momentum through the second, and played better in the third without finding a goal. Casey DeSmith stopped 24 shots. The Stars outshot the Predators 12-6 in the final period. Volume arrived. A second Dallas goal did not.
Early lead as a missed runway
An early lead on the road after a 4-0 home loss is a runway. Dallas used almost none of it. Two penalties in the first period became two Nashville goals. The Heiskanen marker turned from a statement into a footnote on a night defined by what followed it.
Jamie Benn told NHL.com the first periods have been terrible and that the starts are on the players. Heiskanen's goal makes that critique sharper, not softer. The Stars were not buried from the opening faceoff Saturday the way they were Friday. They led. Then special teams and a quiet attack after the first shift gave the lead back and never recovered it.
