Miro Heiskanen stole the puck from Artemi Panarin and scored the winning goal 98 seconds into overtime as the visiting Dallas Stars beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Thursday night.
Heiskanen gave Dallas the win in its season opener by making a defensive play on Panarin just inside the Dallas blue line. Panarin attempted to pass the puck to a teammate, but Heiskanen intercepted the pass, sent the puck to captain Jaime Benn and finished off the play with a high wrist shot over New York goaltender Igor Shesterkin.
Heiskanen’s defensive play and game winner capped a night when the Stars squandered a 2-0 lead and lost starting goaltender Braden Holtby to an undisclosed injury midway through the third.
Rookie Jacob Peterson scored late in the first period and Radek Faksa tallied on the power play as Dallas took a 2-0 lead early in the second.
Defenseman Adam Fox and left winger Chris Kreider scored in a span of about seven minutes in the second for the Rangers, who had 18 shots in the middle period.
Holtby made 25 saves and had his mask knocked off in a collision at the net shortly before leaving with 11:53 remaining in the third. Anton Khudobin made six saves to get the win and stopped five shots during a New York power play.
Shesterkin made 23 saves in his season debut as the Rangers settled for a point in their home opener after a 5-1 loss in Washington on Wednesday.
Peterson got his first career goal after intercepting a New York pass through the neutral zone. He sped past New York rookie Nils Lundkvist and finished it off by lifting a backhander under Shesterkin’s pads from near the left faceoff circle with 35 seconds left.
Faksa made it 2-0 at 6:11 of the second period by deflecting a shot by Heiskanen over Shesterkin’s right pad after the puck had caromed off Fox’s stick.
The Rangers struck with 11:17 left as Fox’s long drive from the right point went over Esa Lindell’s stick and by Holtby.
New York tied it a little over seven minutes later when Kreider deflected a shot by K’Andre Miller over Holtby’s left pad.
–Field Level Media
