Raycroft, Stars blank Blues 4-0

Andrew Raycroft saved his best performance of the preseason for last.

Raycroft stopped all 33 shots he faced and Francis Wathier and Vernon Fiddler each had a goal and an assist as the Dallas Stars cruised to a 4-0 win against the St. Louis Blues at the Scottrade Center on Saturday.

Jake Dowell and Tomas Vincour also scored, and Trevor Daley added a pair of assists for the Stars, who ended their preseason with a 6-1-0 record.

“It’s preseason so you’ve got to take it for what it is. But from a coaching perspective it’s easy to go to sleep at night when you are 6-1 rather than 1-6 in preseason,” new coach Glen Gulutzan said. “Now you just wipe the slate clean and we’ve got another week of work before we get our game completely in order, but it is nice to be on the 6-1 side.”

Jaroslav Halak stopped 20 shots for the Blues, who were shut out for the second time at home this preseason. St. Louis finished with five wins in eight games.

Blues coach Davis Payne is just glad to see the preseason end.

"We still wanted to see some impressions, and unfortunately some of the guys we called up didn't leave great ones," Payne said. "We've got some moves we've got to make, we'll get the roster down and get to work."

Dowell scooped a shot over Halak for a 1-0 lead at 5:25 of the first. Wathier scored on the Stars' first power play, deflecting Daley's shot from the point screening Halak at 8:29 of the first for a 2-0 lead.

Fiddler beat Halak with a wrist shot at 5:01 of the second period for a 3-0 lead, and Vincour scored from in tight at 11:16 of the second to make it 4-0.

The Blues also lost forward B.J. Crombeen, who broke his left shoulder blade in the third period and is out indefinitely.

Material from wire services was used in this report

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