Jake Oettinger made 24 saves as the host Dallas Stars remained unbeaten and moved into sole possession of first place in the Central Division with a 4-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Monday night.
Tyler Seguin, Jani Hakanpaa, Joel Kiviranta and Miro Heiskanen each scored a goal and Mason Marchment added two assists for Dallas as Peter DeBoer became the first coach in franchise history to win his first three games. The Stars also extended their home winning streak against the Jets to seven in a row.
Oettinger, named the NHL’s Third Star of the Week earlier Monday, has stopped 84 of 87 shots in the Stars’ three wins.
Mark Scheifele scored a goal and Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves for Winnipeg. For the second straight game, the Jets were without coach Rick Bowness, who tested positive for COVID on Friday. Associate coach Scott Arniel ran the bench in Bowness’ absence.
Winnipeg jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 3:28 mark of the first period on Scheifele’s third goal of the season. Kyle Connor set the score up when he cut inside to the slot and then passed over to Scheifele in the left circle. Scheifele blasted a one-timer into the far corner.
Dallas, which had an 11-1 edge in giveaways in the opening period, tied it 1-1 at the 10:20 mark. Seguin took a backhand pass from Ty Dellandrea from the left corner in the low slot and fired a wrist shot past Hellebuyck’s glove side for his first goal of the season. It was also Seguin’s 50th career point against Winnipeg, his most against any team in the league.
The Stars then took a 3-1 lead late in the second period with two goals in the span of 1:50. The first was by Hakanpaa on a slap shot from the right point through traffic in front of the net. The second was by Kiviranta on a one-timer from near the right faceoff dot that went in under Hellebuyck’s left arm.
Dallas extended the lead to 4-1 midway through the third period on a power-play goal by Heiskanen. He one-timed a shot from just inside the blue line past three Winnipeg defenders and under Hellebuyck’s glove for his second goal of the season.
Winnipeg had a chance to get back into the game a couple minutes later when Kiviranta picked up a double-minor high-sticking penalty for cutting Neal Pionk under the right eye during a check along the boards. However, Oettinger turned away five shots, including a one-timer from the right circle by Connor.
Scheifele hit the right post and the puck squirted across the crease before Oettinger could cover it up on another power play with 4:10 left to deny the Jets another scoring chance.
–Field Level Media
