Mason Marchment scored twice in the first period and Tyler Seguin recorded three assists as the Dallas Stars opened their season with a 4-1 road victory over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night.

Joe Pavelski also scored and 19-year-old Wyatt Johnston registered a goal in his NHL debut for the Stars, who got 30 saves from Jake Oettinger in new head coach Peter DeBoer’s debut.

Coming off a career-best 18-goal season over 54 games with Florida in 2021-22, Marchment scored 2:31 into the game and with 1:04 left in the first to help Dallas halt an 0-1-3 rut at Nashville.

Down 4-0, the Predators’ Ryan Johansen deflected in an Eeli Tolvanen shot at 4:53 into the third period. Goalie Juuse Saros stopped 25 shots. Nashville failed to score on all five of its power plays.

While Nashville put some early pressure on Oettinger, it was the Stars who came through first. With Dallas on the transition, Marchment broke in and rang the post past Saros less than 3 minutes into the contest.

Marchment wasn’t done in the opening frame.

With Dallas on a late power play, Marchment, with more help from Seguin, buried a backdoor shot — from just outside the crease — off a Nils Lundkvist pass to give his team a 2-0 lead.

Despite its deficit, Nashville again came out the aggressor in the second period by recording the frame’s first three shots on goal.

However, Oettinger remained solid and the Stars applied their own pressure. The visitors were eventually rewarded through Pavelski’s own backdoor one-timer, similar to Marchment’s second tally, off a Roope Hintz pass with 51 seconds to play in the second.

With Seguin and Ryan Suter setting things up, the highly touted Johnston converted his milestone goal on a stellar tic-tac-toe one-timer 4:22 into the third period.

These teams will meet again Saturday night at Dallas.

–Field Level Media