Miro Heiskanen scores early, but Nashville answers with two power-play goals as the Dallas Stars fall 2-1 and open the season with consecutive losses.

DALLAS – The Dallas Stars finally found the back of the net Saturday night. They still couldn’t find their first win.

Miro Heiskanen scored just 47 seconds into the game, but Nashville answered with two first-period power-play goals and held on for a 2-1 victory over Dallas at Bridgestone Arena.

The loss dropped the Stars to 0-2-0 after opening the season with a 4-0 home defeat against St. Louis on Friday.

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Heiskanen gave Dallas exactly the start it needed. Mikko Rantanen worked the puck through traffic before finding Heiskanen in the right circle, where the defenseman snapped a shot past Juuse Saros.

The lead lasted less than four minutes.

Steven Stamkos tied the game at 4:46 on the power play, finishing a Ryan O’Reilly feed for the 625th goal of his NHL career. That moved Stamkos into a tie with Joe Sakic and Jarome Iginla for 17th on the league’s all-time goals list.

Nashville struck again with the man advantage at 15:49.

Jack Ahcan’s point shot deflected off Nils Hoglander near the crease and into the net, giving the Predators a 2-1 lead they wouldn’t surrender.

That proved to be enough.

Dallas generated a better push as the game progressed and outshot Nashville 12-6 in the third period, but Saros repeatedly shut the door. He finished with 29 saves.

Stars goaltender Casey DeSmith was solid in his first start of the season, stopping 24 of 26 shots and giving Dallas every opportunity to rally.

The larger concern is the way Dallas has started both games.

“We’ve had slow starts,” captain Jamie Benn said. “It’s got to be 60 minutes right from the drop of the puck. For this group, it’s unacceptable.”

Coach Glen Gulutzan offered a similar assessment, saying the Stars didn’t establish their game until midway through the second period.

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Through two games, Dallas has scored only one goal.

The Stars won’t have much time to dwell on it. They return home Monday night to face the San Jose Sharks.

Two games isn’t enough to define a season.

But Dallas already has something obvious to fix: start faster and finish more of the chances it creates.