DeSmith makes 33 saves, Stars shut out Blues

ST. LOUIS -- Casey DeSmith made 33 saves for the Dallas Stars in a 2-0 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

“I had some fortunate bounces, a couple posts,” DeSmith said of his second shutout of the season, 12th of his NHL career. “They missed a couple big chances when the net was pretty empty. But the guys just battled. It’s a hard thing to do, those back-to-backs. Obviously not on me, but it’s hard on these guys. Obviously I got the rest, but they don’t.

“I thought top to bottom, we just battled and that was kind of the name of the game tonight and that’s the message that was preached in the locker room and everybody did it.”

Evgenii Dadonov had a goal and an assist, and Esa Lindell also scored for the Stars (31-17-1), who have won three of four, including 4-3 against the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday.

“It was a night where our hearts were in the right place; it was 11 games in 19 nights,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “A real emotional, hard-fought win last night. We were running on fumes. There wasn’t much in the tank. We did enough to win. Casey DeSmith came in and was our best player, which is what we needed. A big two points and found a way. Looking forward to a day off.”

Jordan Binnington made 17 saves for the Blues (23-23-4), who have lost three of four and were shut out for the first time this season.

“Definitely got to find ways to come away with points. Only had two good periods tonight and not three. At the end of the day, it hurt us,” Blues captain Brayden Schenn said.

“We didn’t come to play the first little bit there (in the first period). Two games in a row, and it cost us against good teams. It’s hard to come back against good teams when you get down early.”

Dadonov gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 7:07 of the first period. Jason Robertson redirected Miro Heiskanen’s outlet pass into the path of Dadonov, who got behind Schenn and Colton Parayko before sliding the puck past Binnington.

Lindell made it 2-0 at 9:36 with a power-play goal, beating Binnington with a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle off a cross-crease pass from Roope Hintz. It was the defenseman's first power-play goal since Oct. 19, 2019, against the Philadelphia Flyers.

“I just got the tail end of the power play there before it comes to 5-on-5,” Lindell said. “We ended up getting in the zone. I’ve got to give credit to [Hintz], who made a nice pass.”

The Blues outshot the Stars 21-10 after the first period, hit multiple posts and missed a number of high-danger scoring chances but couldn’t solve DeSmith.

“We really didn’t show good finish,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said. ‘I think we whiffed on maybe five shots tonight, but execution-wise, we weren’t screening the goalie well enough. We were off to the side. We weren’t fighting through checks because we had a lot of point shots, especially in the second where you’d like to take away his eyes to create either goals, tips or rebound goals.”

Blues forward Brandon Saad had a clear look at DeSmith’s goal with 1:37 left in the third period and St. Louis skating with an extra attacker, but the 33-year-old goalie fended off a snap shot from the top of the right circle with his blocker to preserve the shutout.

“In the third period when we were low on gas, we just chipped pucks in and chipped pucks out and just weathered the storm,” DeSmith said.

NOTES: The last time St. Louis was shut out was March 30, 2024, 4-0 against the San Jose Sharks. … Blues forward Radek Faksa was 8-for-12 in the face-off circle in 12:01 of ice time in his first game against the Stars after he was acquired in a trade for future considerations on July 2; he spent the first nine seasons of his NHL career in Dallas.