Less than a minute into overtime in Dallas, Buffalo rookie Owen Power knocked in the game-winner, giving the Sabres a 3-2 win against the Stars on Monday night.
Dallas entered the game having won their previous three games and riding two straight shutouts from goalies Scott Wedgewood and Jake Oettinger. Oettinger took the loss in the Sabres’ tilt. Craig Anderson, a 41-year-old goalie for Buffalo, outperformed him by stopping 29 of 31 shots to earn the victory in his 700th NHL game.
WHAT TO KNOW
— The Stars notched goals from Jamie Benn and Jason Robertson. Jake Oettinger came up with 22 saves. With one point in the OT loss, Dallas (28-13-8) moved one point ahead of Winnipeg (31-16-1) in the Central Division, 64 points to 63.
— Benn scored at 1:48 in the opening period, 25 seconds into a power play, on a second-effort tap-in at the far corner of the net after a skate save off a centering pass by Roope Hintz. Hintz was back in the lineup after missing six games starting on January 6 due to a high body injury (he also took a puck to the knee in the January 6 contest).
BY THE NUMBERS
— Dallas had more shots on goal in the contest (31-25) and didn’t allow Buffalo a shot until almost 10 minutes into the first frame. Less than a minute later, Buffalo’s second shot on goal saw Sabre Rasmus Dahlin rattle home against Oettinger to tie the game at 1-1.
— Benn’s goal was his 19th of the year, and Robertson’s was his 32nd. Joe Pavelski picked up assists on both plays, tying him for the team lead with Robertson at 33. (Miro Heiskanen trails his teammates for the team lead with 32 assists).
WHAT THEY SAID
— Pavelski on the game’s start: “The first (period) was really good, I think, you know, the first ten (minutes), we were all over them.”
— Hintz said of his return to the ice: “That was like the best thing I feel, so I didn’t feel like I was out for like seven games or whatever. That’s not the situation you want to be in.”
— Stars forward Mason Marchment: “I think where we got away from our game a little bit there at the end of the second and sort of the end of the first. We got all of our game back in the third and started playing the right way.”
— Stars coach Peter DeBoer: “I loved our start, I thought we could have been up three, four, nothing in the first 10 minutes. And then, you know, you don’t finish those. I think we fell into a little bit of a trap, and we thought maybe it was going to be easy based on the first 10 minutes. That’s how we played; they were hungrier. They won more battles.”
NEXT UP
— Dallas hosts the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. CT. The Hurricanes (29-9-8) come into the contest 5-3-2 in the last ten games and ride a two-game win streak. The Stars are also 5-3-2.
— The teams last played on December 17, with Carolina earning a 5-4 win.