DeSmith, Stars shut out Kraken to stay undefeated

DALLAS -- Casey DeSmith made 25 saves in his debut for the Dallas Stars, who defeated the Seattle Kraken 2-0 at American Airlines Center on Sunday.

“What I liked about Casey’s game is how calm he looked in the net. He looked like he was in control and unflappable,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “We’ve got a smart group. We know that defense gives you a chance to win every night in this league, and if you defend hard and get good goaltending, you can give yourself a chance every night. If you don’t, you’ve probably put yourself in a lot tougher spot.”

Sam Steel and Wyatt Johnston scored for Dallas (3-0-0), which has back-to-back shutouts after Jake Oettinger made 34 saves in a 3-0 win against the New York Islanders on Saturday.

“That was a blast. In front of the home crowd, obviously the guys played great. It feels good to participate and help the boys get a win,” said DeSmith, who signed a three-year, $3 million contract ($1 million average annual value) with the Stars on July 1. “[Back-to-back shutouts are] really rare. I don’t know that I’ve ever been a part of that. Probably not. What a way to start the year. Just shows that we’re playing the right way and hopefully that keeps going.”

Philipp Grubauer made 21 saves for Seattle (1-2-0).

“I thought [Grubauer] played really well,” Seattle coach Dan Bylsma said. “Couple of times in the first period there were a couple of barrages around the net and he stood strong. In the third period, they got the two breakaways that [he] came up big on and kept us in the game and gave us a chance.”

Seattle was coming off a 5-4 shootout win at the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.

“Although it’s a back-to-back and you might be tired, it is game three,” Seattle defenseman Brandon Montour said. “There should be no excuse, especially going against a team like Dallas who is a top-end team in the West. Especially a team that’s looking to get over the hump and get a good run in the playoffs. That’s one that you should just kind of be up for.”

Steel gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 16:17 of the first period with a tap-in at the right post.

“Points matter the same, no matter if it’s game one or 82. To get off to a great start, it’s just good to get points in the bank early,” Steel said. “It’s just nice not having to play catchup. It’s only three games, there’s still a lot of improvement for us to be made, but for the most part we’ve been pretty solid.”

Johnston scored 13 seconds later at 16:30 to make it 2-0 when he picked the top corner blocker side from the right face-off dot.

“They’re a fast transition team. I think we can do a better job of shutting it down earlier, but it cost us one goal tonight,” Seattle defenseman Adam Larsson said.

Dallas has had seven different players score its nine goals this season.

“That’s one thing we take pride in is our depth. You need everyone to chip in,” Johnston said. “It’s great that it’s been spread out so far. I think that’s what makes us really tough is we’ve got four lines that can score and make plays.”

Grubauer kept it a two-goal game by stopping two breakaways in the third period, the first on Tyler Seguin at 7:03 and then Mason Marchment at 14:01.

“He had a really strong game. He’s been really good for us throughout camp and the first couple of games,” Larsson said. “We didn’t score enough goals today.”

NOTES: Dallas defenseman Mathew Dumba did not play and is day to day because of a lower-body injury sustained in the first period against the Islanders. … Seattle defenseman Vince Dunn did not play and is day to day because of an upper-body injury he sustained against the Wild. … It was the second time in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history that they have had shutouts on consecutive days (Dec. 15-16, 1967).