DALLAS—Roope Hintz and Joe Pavelski each scored his 18th goal this season to share the team lead, and Jake Oettinger won a matchup of Western Conference All-Star goaltenders as the Dallas Stars pulled away from the Los Angeles Kings for a 5–1 victory Tuesday night, Jan. 16.
Dallas got three goals in a four-minute stretch during the first half of the third period to take complete control. Hintz, Wyatt Johnston and Evgenii Dadonov each had a goal and an assist, and Sam Steel scored short-handed for the Stars, who are 4–1–0 in their last five games. Jason Robertson added two assists.
Veteran defenseman Drew Doughty scored his 150th career goal for the Kings, who finished a six-game trip by splitting a back-to-back. They won at Carolina on Monday night to end an eight-game skid (0–4–4).
“We did what we were supposed to do against a team on the end of a six-game road trip coming off a back-to-back,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “That was start well and finish well.”
Oettinger (13–8–2) made 32 saves, while Cam Talbot stopped 23 shots for Los Angeles.
“Especially in the third period, hopefully we can have more energy than them,” Oettinger said. “You don’t want to let those teams hang around.”
Oettinger made his third consecutive appearance after missing 12 games with a groin injury.
Scott Wedgewood, who made 11 starts during Oettinger’s absence, went out with a lower-body injury last Saturday and is listed as day-to-day.
Talbot (14–11–5) is 0–5–3 in his last eight starts.
“We stress checking and preventing, but we also have to score goals,” Kings coach Todd McLelland said. “When you don’t use the opportunities you have, sixth game on a road trip, it’s going to be hard to win.
“Every team goes through the travel rigors that we just went through, and I don’t think anybody in our locker room at least, or the coaches’ room, is even considering throwing that out there as, ‘It’s OK. We lost because we had to play back-to-back.’”
Doughty’s 150 goals are second in King’s history among defensemen. Rob Blake, now Los Angeles’ general manager, had 161.
Hintz fired a high shot from the slot off the crossbar midway through the first period for the game’s first score.
Dallas doubled its lead exactly six minutes later when Dadonov’s centering pass for Radek Faksa went off Talbot’s pad, caromed off Kings defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov’s left skate, and dribbled over the goal line.
Doughty’s goal that made the score 2–1 only 1:21 into the second period came with a 6-on-4 skating advantage on a power play plus a delayed penalty. Doughty hit a one-timer from the high slot through traffic.
Johnston and Pavelski scored a little more than a minute apart early in the third. Steel tacked on his short-handed goal, Dallas’ 10th this season, about halfway through a Stars penalty at 9:33 of the third.
Hintz has three goals and three assists in the last five games, his previous two goals being game-winners.
Up Next
Kings: Will host Nashville on Wednesday to begin a four-game homestand.Stars: Play at Philadelphia on Wednesday to start a four-game trip against Eastern Conference teams.
