Dallas Stars’ Brett Ritchie
What better way to ring in the New Year than a glimpse into the future?
The Dallas Stars are hoping they received one Wednesday night as rookie Brett Ritchie scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game to open the flood doors on a 6-0 Dallas win over the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday.
It was one of the best victories ever in the Stars’ traditional New Year’s Eve game, and probably the most complete performance of the season.
“All around, that was probably our best game,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “That’s a different team than we were the first two months. That’s the team we want to be.”
The Stars are now 7-1-0 in their past eight games and move to 17-14-5 (39 points) on the season. They are pushing up into the conversation for one of the two wild-card playoff spots. And while there still is more than half the season to play, the playoffs haven’t even been a topic of locker room talk for a while.
“We’re definitely playing better,” said goalie Kari Lehtonen, who recorded 32 saves for the 30th shutout of his career. “We have found our way of playing, and it’s been easier for me there, too. It also helps that I’ve been able to make the timely saves. It was a nice effort today.”
Ritchie was a big key. The 21-year-old from Ontario was Player of the Week in the AHL last week, and Ruff said he and general manager Jim Nill were talking about calling him up. When Shawn Horcoff came up sick and Antoine Roussel was bothered by some physical pain, they made the call to get Ritchie up. He was alerted around noon and drove up from Cedar Park.
“It felt like it went pretty quick,” Ritchie said about his first NHL game. “I only found out at 12 o’clock today, so I think I sort of lucked out that way.”
He had to go through the rookie initiation of being the first player to skate out for warm-ups. NHL teams are typically led out by goalies, but the Stars have taken to making the rookies skate out by themselves while the veterans giggle and watch. Ritchie said he was prepared for the joke, and enjoyed the moment.
And the players said they loved his enthusiasm.
“It’s a great feeling,” said captain Jamie Benn, who had a goal and assist. “It’s great energy.”
That said, the team had to be patient. The Stars had just three shots on goal in a scoreless first period, and then Ritchie tallied first at the 7:22 mark of the second period. Ritchie had a big hit in the corner and then beat his defender off the wall to the front of the net. Travis Moen fed Ritchie, who shovelled in the goal from the doorstep.
