The Dallas Stars signed Eric Lindros to a free-agent contract over the summer to put the puck in the net. After acting as an effective setup man, the big winger finally flashed that ability last night.
Lindros scored two goals, Mike Modano added a goal and an assist and the Stars beat the visiting St. Louis Blues 4-1 to get off to the best start in franchise history.
Lindros had seven assists in his first 11 games in a Stars uniform, but only one goal. Against St. Louis, he used his 6-foot-4, 240-pound frame to score one goal on a deflection and a second from close range.
“Eric is a hard guy to contain when he's playing like he played tonight,” Modano said. “His M.O. since he came into the league has been to create space and make things happen, and he did that tonight.”
Marty Turco stopped 23 shots and Jussi Jokinen had a goal and an assist for Dallas (10-2). The Stars' best previous 12-game mark was 9-2-1 in 1996-97 and 1982-83.
With the game tied at 1, Modano scored at 7:13 of the second period, skating hard to the net and converting Jokinen's centering pass for his eighth goal of the season and 493rd of his career.
Jokinen made it 3-1 at 12:55 of the third period, striking from just below the right circle off a feed from Modano. Lindros scored his second goal of the night and third of the season at 15:00 of the final period from close range to give Dallas a three-goal lead.
“Sooner or later they were going to go in,” said Lindros, who has 370 career goals. “Over the course (of his career), there's been some ugly ones, some pretty ones, but sooner or later, things start to happen. Those weren't pretty goals for me, but they all count the same.”
Turco denied Dallas Drake on a breakaway midway through the second period to preserve a 2-1 advantage.
Notables
Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin became the first NHL player in 89 years to score goals in his first six games, beating Los Angeles goalie Dan Cloutier with a wrist shot 8:29 into the first period. The 20-year-old Russian matched the mark shared by Joe Malone, Newsy Lalonde and Cy Denneny, who each scored in their first six games during the NHL's inaugural season in 1917-18. . . . Ken Hitchcock was hired as a pro scout by Philadelphia, less than two weeks after the Flyers fired him as their head coach. . . . Florida winger Todd Bertuzzi, sidelined by a herniated disk since an Oct. 18 game at Washington, might have surgery on his injured back. . . . Buffalo center Tim Connolly, out indefinitely with a concussion, was put on the long-term injured reserve list to free salary-cap space.
