Written By Stephen Hawkins at DenverPost.com
Jamie Benn had a goal and two assists and Kari Lehtonen stopped 22 shots for his second career playoff shutout and the Dallas Stars beat the Minnesota Wild 4-0 in their first-round opener Thursday night.
Jason Spezza returned to the postseason with a nifty goal and added an assist for the Stars, the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.
Spezza was skating along the right side and initially faked a slap shot with just over 8 minutes left in the second period.
After skating a few more feet to near the center of the faceoff circle, he took a wrist shot and sent the puck in the upper right corner to make it 2-0.
Spezza was playing in his 57th playoff game, but first in two seasons with the Stars — and his first overall since 2013 with Ottawa.
Game 2 is Saturday night in Dallas.
Spezza assisted on Patrick Eaves’ power-play goal with 5:44 left, when Eaves scored on the rebound of Spezza’s shot off goalie Devan Dubnyk.
Benn scored an empty-netter less than 2 minutes later.
Rookie center Radek Faksa, a first-round draft pick by the Stars in 2012, had a goal in his playoff debut early in the second period.
The Stars were without All-Star center Tyler Seguin, who practiced this week for the first time since missing the last 10 regular-season games because of a cut left Achilles tendon.
Coach Lindy Ruff said Seguin likely would have played the opener if it was a Game 7, but should make his series debut in Game 2.
Minnesota was without forwards Zach Parise and Thomas Vanek, who didn’t travel to Dallas for Games 1 and 2. Parise, their top goal-scorer, is questionable for the series.
Lehtonen got the start in net over fellow Finnish goalie Antti Niemi, who has much more playoff experience, after the two each won 25 games in the regular season for the Stars.
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