Mrazek makes 33 saves, Hurricanes shut out Stars for third straight win

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Petr Mrazek made 33 saves, and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Dallas Stars 3-0 at PNC Arena on Saturday.

Justin Williams, Brock McGinn and Micheal Ferland scored for the Hurricanes (31-22-6), who hold the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. They have won three games in a row and eight of their past 10, and are 16-5-1 since Dec. 31.
"We were slow, so they beat us up the ice a ton," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "I give that team a ton of credit. They were dialed in tonight. We gave up way too many grade-A opportunities, but Mrazek] was a step ahead. Even on the back-door stuff, you could see him reading the play."
***[WATCH: [All Stars vs. Hurricanes highlights]*
Anton Khudobin made 24 saves for the Stars (29-24-5), who are 1-3-1 in their past five and hold the first wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference.
"We played a good game, we played hard, we made a lot of plays," Dallas coach Jim Montgomery said. "We didn't finish plays. Their goalie played great."
Carolina took a 1-0 lead at 5:09 of the first period when Sebastian Aho dropped a pass to Williams, who shot from the right face-off circle to the far post on a 2-on-1.

McGinn took a pass in the low slot from Justin Faulk and finished on the backhand for a 2-0 lead at 8:31.
"We're just creating space," McGinn said. "When we get rolling around there, it really opens up seams. Faulk gave me two really good passes from there from the top and I was fortunate to handle the second one and put it in."
Andrei Svechnikov fed Ferland from behind the net for a power-play goal to make it 3-0 at 16:08 of the third period.

The Stars had quality scoring chances throughout the game. Mrazek followed a toe save with a point-blank pad save on Andrew Cogliano with 2:32 left in the first period, then made the save on a net-front redirection by Jason Dickinson at 6:39 of the second.
"He was amazing," McGinn said. "He kept us in that whole game. In the second period he made some unbelievable saves. We really feed off that, and it gives our team a lot of energy."
The shutout was Mrazek's second of the season. Each has come in his past three games; he defeated the New York Rangers 3-0 on the road Feb. 8.
"It's fun when we can compete like that, we can battle," Mrazek said. "That's the time of year when you want to enjoy every game. There aren't many games left, and you want to push yourself to make the playoffs."

They said it

"Anytime we fall behind, it's not a good situation for us. There was an opportunity for our big line to step up, and unfortunately, they got scored on twice in the first period. I like the way we kept going to work. We stayed relentless, we played to our identity, we just couldn't score." -- Stars coach Jim Montgomery
"The guys are having fun. If it's fun to come to the rink, it's easy to do your job. Guys are enjoying their time with each other. It makes it effortless to put in the work but it's not as mentally taxing. It's easy to show up every day." -- Hurricanes defenseman Justin Faulk

Need to know

Khudobin lost to the Hurricanes in regulation for the first time in his NHL career (4-1-1). … Dallas forward Joel L'Esperance made his NHL debut and had one shot, two hits and a blocked shot in 15:53. … Williams (six points; two goals, four assists), Aho (five assists) and Carolina forward Niederreiter (six points; two goals, four assists) each has a four-game point streak. … Ferland played in his 300th NHL game.

What's next

Stars:Host the Nashville Predators on Tuesday (8:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-SW, FS-TN, NHL.TV)
Hurricanes: Host the New York Rangers on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; FS-CR, MSG, NHL.TV)