Stars Edge Panthers In Preseason Opener

     The Florida Panthers opened up their preseason schedule as they fell to the Dallas Stars 4-3 in a shootout at BB&T Center on Wednesday night. The Cats held out the 2014 top draft pick Aaron Ekblad from this game along with Roberto Luongo and Brian Campbell.
     The Stars crunched in a full day prior to this game. They held a practice outside of Dallas from 9 until 10:30 a.m., got on an airplane, flew several hours into a different time zone and bused through rush-hour traffic to arrive in Sunrise.
     It did not seem to affect the team in the first period as Dallas jumped out to a 2-0 lead. Patrick Eaves, who was acquired as a free agent, scored on a power play at 9:12. He made a turnaround move in the low crease and fired a wrist shot over the left shoulder of Dan Ellis. Kevin Connauton scored on a shot in the crease area at 14:56 to make it 2-0.
     Stars starting goalie Jack Campbell was pulled after 31 minutes of play and stopped all 11 Cats shots. The last half of the second period belonged to the Panthers as they evened the contest at 2-2. They scored in their first shooting attempt against backup goalie Jussi Rynnas at 11:59 when Shane O'Brien snapped a shot from the top left circle after a feed by Scottie Upshall. New Florida free agent acquisition Dave Bolland tied it at 2-2 on the power play when he pounded a shot from the top right circle on an assist from Dmitry Kulikov with 1:50 left in the period.
     Brandon Pirri gave the Cats their first lead of the game early in the third period and he scored on a wrist shot from the top left circle following a Nick Bjugstad face-off win. Dallas evened it 3-3 with 8:53 left in regulation when Tyler Sequin faked a shot, slid the puck to his left and Alex Goligoski put it into an open net.
     Neither team scored in overtime and missed on their first three attempts of the shootout. Ales Hemsky, who played for the Edmonton Oilers and Ottawa Senators last season, scored the winning goal on the Stars fourth attempt as he faked a forehand shot, went to the backhand and put the puck between the pads of Michael Houser.