Stars Beaten Badly in Return

Nothing went right for the Dallas Stars in their first trip back to their old home.

Manny Fernandez made 24 saves to shut out his former team and Darby Hendrickson scored two goals Sunday as the expansion Minnesota Wild defeated the Stars, 6-0, for their most lopsided victory.

A record 18,834 watched the Stars return to the state where they played until the franchise moved in 1993.

“Before this game, the fans were very excited,” Minnesota Coach Jacques Lemaire said, comparing the atmosphere to that of a playoff game. “We could feel it in the locker room. And the fact that we scored got them excited too. We could sense how much the fans wanted us to win this one.”

It was Fernandez’s second shutout this season, and the first time the Stars had been blanked since a 1-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Nov. 20, 1999, at Charlotte, N.C.

Fernandez was with the Stars last season as Ed Belfour’s backup.

“Manny made some big second and third saves, but it was an easy night,” said Dallas Coach Ken Hitchcock. “This game was over in the first period.”

The Wild scored two goals in less than a minute in the opening period. Jeff Nielsen made the score 1-0 with a slap shot from the top of the left faceoff circle. On the next shift, Ladislav Benysek’s low shot from along the boards hit the stick of Wild forward Marian Gaborik and deflected into the upper right corner of the net with 10 minutes gone.

Dallas failed to convert four power plays in the second period, and trailed, 4-0, after 40 minutes.

“I practiced the power play a lot when I was in Dallas, so there was stuff from that I remembered that really helped tonight,” Fernandez said.