Fresh off a four-game road sweep, the Stars returned to Dallas on January 28 and experienced a 5-0 clubbing by the Washington Capitals.
On Sunday evening, however, the Stars got back to their winning ways in a 6-1 victory over the visiting Boston Bruins in a game Dallas head coach Rick Bowness said was one of his team’s finest performances of the season.
“That was probably the best game we played all year, at both ends of the ice,” Bowness said after the victory. “Power play got a big goal, killed a penalty, but that’s what we need.”
Tyler Seguin scored two goals and added an assist in the victory.
For the Stars, who have won five of their last six games, Roope Hintz scored his 20th goal of the season, and Jake Oettinger made 25 saves and pushed his record to 11-4 in fifteen starts.
“Jake was great tonight, made the saves that we needed him to make at the right time,” Bowness said of his goalie. “Jake made some big saves.”
Boston’s Linus Ullmark was pulled in the second period after allowing the Stars four goals on 15 shots.
At 6:54 of the first period, Seguin drove the net and tipped in a shot that deflected off Bruins defenseman Urho Vaakanainen to give the Stars a 1-0 lead.
At 15:23, Alexander Radulov scored his second goal of the year on a breakaway to make it 2-0. He hadn’t scored since October 27 (the last 28 games).
At 6:31 of the second period, Luke Glendening redirected Miro Heiskanen’s shot from the half-wall to make it 3-0, and Jamie Benn scored 1:08 later to put the Stars up 4-0 at 7:39.
Following Benn’s goal, the Bruins goalie was pulled.
At 4:55 of the third period, Hintz scored on the power play off a pass from John Klingberg to make it 5-0. Hintz’s goal was his fifth in the last six games.
At 5:49, Craig Smith broke Oettinger’s shutout, bringing the score to 5-1.
At 18:53, Seguin scored his second goal of the game on a pass from Denis Gurianov to make it a 6-1 game.
With the win, Dallas runs its record to 23-17-2, good for a total of 48 points, and in a tie with Calgary for the second spot in the wildcard chase.
On Tuesday, those same Calgary Flames skate into Dallas to Face the Stars at American Airlines Center. The last time the two teams faced off was in November. Benn scored an overtime goal to give the Stars a 4-3 victory in that contest.