Marchment has 5 points, Stars score 6 straight in 1st to ease past Penguins

PITTSBURGH -- Mason Marchment had a goal and four assists, and the Dallas Stars scored six straight goals in the first period of a 7-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Monday.

Matt Duchene had a goal and two assists, Miro Heiskanen scored twice, and Brendan Smith and Esa Lindell each had two assists for the Stars (9-5-0), who had lost three of four (1-3-0). Jake Oettinger made 20 saves.

“Coming on the road, tough building,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “You know their pedigree, their team. So, we knew we’d have to bring our A-game, and I thought we did.”

Anthony Beauvillier scored for the Penguins (6-9-2), who had points in four of their past five games (3-1-1). Joel Blomqvist was pulled after allowing three goals on eight shots in the first period. Alex Nedeljkovic surrendered four goals on 32 shots in relief.

The Stars scored on six of their first 12 shots.

Duchene gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 2:33 of the first period on his eighth goal this season. He took a pass from Marchment and carried it around Ryan Graves to the right face-off circle for a wrist shot that trickled past Blomqvist.

Logan Stankoven made it 2-0 at 7:13 with a snap shot from the left circle that went in off the skate of Pittsburgh defenseman Erik Karlsson.

“They get a couple of fluky goals early in the first period, we get down that early, that many goals,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “Thought the rest of the period, we didn’t play the game the right way. We were careless with the puck. We gave them some easy looks. They turned it into an insurmountable challenge.”

Marchment extended it to 3-0 at 10:16. During a Pittsburgh line change, a stretch pass from Smith bounced off the end boards to Marchment for a snap shot in the slot.

“It’s nice for a bunch of the guys to get on the board and kind of feel good about ourselves,” Marchment said. “I thought, tonight, right from the start of the game, we were on it.”

Nedeljkovic allowed two goals on the first two shots he faced after replacing Blomqvist.

“It’s tough, it’s hard,” Nedeljkovic said. “Obviously, it can get away from you quick. Things kind of snowball from there. It’s unfortunate. We had one of those nights tonight. But tomorrow is a new day. Wake up, move on from it. I’m sure we’ll watch video. It ain’t going to be fun for anybody.”

Heiskanen made it 4-0 at 13:09 with his first goal of the season on a one-timer before pushing it to 5-0 at 14:37 with a wrist shot on a breakaway.

“It’s always nice to score,” Heiskanen said. “I hadn’t had any this year before that. I don’t think about that too much, but it’s always nice to score and get on the board.”

Tyler Seguin’s power-play goal extended it to 6-0 at 18:39, tapping in a pass from Marchment on a 2-on-1.

"There's not much to say when it's 6-0,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “You just have to go play through it. You can't quit. You can't give up. We put ourselves in that situation. We've got to keep playing and see what happens. So besides that, you can't change the period. It happened. We've got to find ways to play through it."

Beauvillier cut it to 6-1 at 15:03 of the second period on a wrist shot off a pass from Valtteri Puustinen after skating in from the right circle.

Wyatt Johnston scored on a one-timer at 15:10 of the third period on the power play for the 7-1 final.

NOTES: The Stars scored six goals in a period for the seventh time in their history, and just the second time since relocating to Dallas in 1993 (six in the third period on Feb. 6, 2009). ... Pittsburgh allowed six first-period goals at home for the first time in its history. ... 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). ... Dallas (14:37) scored the third-fastest five goals to start a game in its history. It scored five in 9:00 on March 16, 1971, and five in 14:27 on Jan. 16, 1984. ... Smith played his 700th NHL game.