The Dallas Stars dismantled the reeling Pittsburgh Penguins 7-1 at PPG Paints Arena on Monday night — and Mason Marchment was the offensive catalyst. The 29-year-old erupted for a goal and five points as the Stars embarrassed their cross-conference foes in front of their home crowd.
Six of Dallas' goals came in the first period, and Marchment factored in on four of them, making franchise history in the process.
“Marchment is the second Stars player to have four points in the first period of a game, joining Barry Gibbs (one goal, three assists in the first period against the Penguins on Dec. 21, 1974),” wrote NHL.com's Wes Crosby afterwards.
Incredibly, the five-point outburst wasn't even the best offensive performance of Marchment's career. The Uxbridge, Ontario native enjoyed a six-point night against the Columbus Blue Jackets back in January of 2022. Still, it was a monster performance for a player who had been held off the scoresheet in each of his last four games.
“It’s nice for a bunch of the guys to get on the board and kind of feel good about ourselves,” Marchment said, per Crosby. “I thought, tonight, right from the start of the game, we were on it.”
Marchment has struggled along with his team recently; the Stars had gone 1-3 before the convincing victory on Monday.
“Coming on the road, tough building,” said Dallas head coach Pete DeBoer. “You know their pedigree, their team. So, we knew we’d have to bring our A-game, and I thought we did.”
And with that, the Stars look to be back to their usual selves after a difficult couple of weeks.
Stars are back on track after statement road victory
The Stars faced a tall task against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in the 2024 NHL Global Series Finland — and they were not up to the challenge.
Dallas was beaten back-to-back by Florida in Tampere, and then had five days off to return to North America. Flying to and from Europe can't be easy during the early days of the season, and the fatigue showed in a 4-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.
But after dropping three of four, Monday's result is hugely encouraging for one of the Central Division's better teams. Jake Oettinger got back on track by making 20 saves on 21 shots, while the offense did all of the damage it needed to in the first period. Wyatt Johnston scored a powerplay tally in the third period to round out the scoring.
It was the seventh time in franchise history the Stars had scored six goals in a period, and just the second time since relocating to Dallas in 1993, per Crosby. For the Penguins, it was the first time in history they had allowed six first-period goals at home.
Now with some positive momentum on their side — and still a full 10 points back of the Jets for first place in the Central — the Stars will look to make up some ground when the Boston Bruins visit American Airlines Center on Thursday night.
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