DALLAS — Jason Robertson and newcomer Matt Duchene scored in the shootout to help the Dallas Stars beat the St. Louis Blues 2-1 on Thursday night in the season opener for each team.
Jamie Benn scored in regulation for Dallas, which reached the Western Conference Final last season.
Tyler Tucker scored for St. Louis, which failed to reach the playoffs last season for the first time since 2018.
Robertson and Brayden Schenn traded shootout goals in the first round. Duchene, who was signed last summer after Nashville bought out his contract, put Dallas ahead 2-1 before Jake Oettinger made a save on Pavel Buchnevich.
After Tyler Seguin was stopped by Jordan Binnington to open the third round, St. Louis’ Jordan Kyrou couldn’t get his shot off against Oettinger, who made 23 saves in regulation.
Benn opened the scoring 18 seconds into the second period on a wraparound that beat Binnington, who made 33 saves in regulation.
The Blues answered when defenseman Tucker whistled a shot from the high slot through traffic at 2:37, tying it at 1. Tucker scored once in 26 Blues games last year in his first NHL season.
Binnington made two standout saves in the period. He robbed Joe Pavelski with a sprawling glove save about five minutes in and extended his left leg to deny Wyatt Johnston in the closing seconds.
Seconds earlier, Oettinger stopped a point-blank wrist shot by Oskar Sundqvist.
The Blues successfully challenged Mason Marchment’s tip-in goal with 12 seconds left in the first, two seconds after Luke Schenn’s tripping penalty expired, for being offside when Dallas’ Evgenii Dadonov entered the zone.
With the goal disallowed, the clock was set back to 45.8 seconds left in the period and Schenn returned to the penalty box.
NOTEWORTHY
Dallas played without top-line center Roope Hintz because of an upper-body injury that sidelined him through the entire preseason schedule. Hintz had a career-best 75 points last season and led the team with 24 postseason points. ... The Blues’ two special-teams shots on goal during the first period came on a penalty kill. They had none on two power plays.
UP NEXT
Blues: Saturday’s home opener vs. Seattle.
Stars: Tuesday at Vegas. The Golden Knights beat the Stars in last season’s West final en route to their first Stanley Cup title.
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