DALLAS – Jean-Sebastien Giguere wasn’t able to carry his postseason magic into the new season.

Giguere allowed goals on the second and third shots against him, then gave up another in each of the final two periods as the Dallas Stars beat the Anaheim Mighty Ducks 4-1 Wednesday night in the season opener.

Sergei Zubov and Stu Barnes beat him on shots 30 seconds apart in the game’s opening minutes, then Zubov made a superb pass to set up Barnes for the third goal, which Giguere had little chance to stop. Bill Guerin flipped in the final goal on a breakaway midway through the third period.

Giguere finished with 18 saves in his first game since winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs MVP. He had a 1.62 goals-against average, .945 save percentage and five shutouts during the postseason as the Mighty Ducks took New Jersey to seven games in the Stanley Cup finals.

In rising from seventh seed to Western Conference champions, Anaheim ousted Dallas in the second round. It was a bitter early exit for the conference’s top team in the regular season. Maybe that’s why there was a fight 20 seconds in and another less than two minutes later.

Both teams were breaking in new captains, having lost their longtime leaders in the offseason. Dallas saw defensive brute Derian Hatcher sign with Detroit, while Paul Kariya signed with Colorado. The Mighty Ducks replaced him by adding Sergei Fedorov and Vaclav Prospal, both of whom led their teams in scoring last season.

Blackhawks 1, Wild 0

CHICAGO – Jocelyn Thibault stopped 33 shots, and Tyler Arnason scored early in the second period to lead the Chicago Blackhawks to a 1-0 victory over the Minnesota Wild in the season opener for both teams.

Thibault, who was sharp throughout, teamed with the Blackhawks’ penalty killers to snuff all seven Minnesota power-play chances. Chicago had three power-play opportunities, two in the first period.

Thibault had eight shutouts last season, second best in the NHL. He shut out Buffalo 3-0 in the Blackhawks’ home opener a year ago.

With the Chicago Cubs hosting Game 2 of the National League championship series, only 13,903 were in attendance to see the Blackhawks, who have missed the playoffs five of the past six seasons.

Minnesota’s Dwayne Roloson stopped 21 shots.

After a scoreless first period, Arnason connected from the slot at 3:53 of the second. He was set up with a perfect centering pass from Ville Nieminen, who had cut into the Minnesota zone and battled through traffic on the right wing boards.

The Blackhawks signed Nieminen as a free agent away from Pittsburgh in July.

Thibault made several alert, close-in stops late in the second and through the third as the Wild enjoyed five consecutive power plays.

Thibault made a point-blank stop on Wes Walz with 4 minutes left in the third after a turnover during a Blackhawks’ power play.

Wednesday marked the first time in five years the Blackhawks opened the season at home. They started 0-1 after three of those four road openers.

Notes: The Blackhawks began their 78th NHL season with six rookies on their roster. Four – Tuomo Ruutu, Lasse Kukkonen, Igor Radulov and Travis Moen – played Wednesday.

… Chicago’s average player age is 26.3, compared to 30.4 last season. … The Wild, beginning their fourth season, were without forwards Marian Gaborik and Pascal Dupuis, who remain unsigned restricted free agents. Gaborik scored 30 goals last season and Dupuis had 20. … A moment of silence was observed before the game for Atlanta Thrashers forward Dan Snyder, who died Sunday from injuries suffered in a car crash last week with teammate Dany Heatley.

AP-ES-10-08-03 2251EDT