In Dallas, the Washington Capitals’ Vitek Vanecek made 29 saves in a 5-0 win over the Stars on Friday night.
“The score tells you we had nothing going tonight,” Dallas head coach Rick Bowness said. “We played a very experienced, hungry hockey club that had lost two in a row. They came in and took control of the game and didn’t let up. We just had nothing going tonight.”
The Capitals improved to 24-12-9.
“I hate to see he had a tough night, but we all know what he’s done for our organization, for our club, for our fans,” the Capitals’ Nicklas Backstrom (goal) said. “He’s a good friend of a lot of guys on the team and I think everyone loves him.”
Tom Wilson, John Carlson, and Trevor van Riemsdyk scored in the opening frame for a 3-0 lead.
“I think we got exposed today,” the Stars’ John Klingberg said. “Mistakes got costly, and they’re a really good hockey team over there.”
The Stars dropped to 22-17-2.
Lars Eller pushed the lead to 4-0 in the middle frame.
“I think we didn’t forecheck well tonight,” the Stars’ Miro Heiskanen said. “And we probably didn’t play that hard when we did it on the road.”
Backstrom closed out the scoring in the second period for the 5-0 final.
“They’re a skilled, fast team with a good forecheck as well,” Backstrom said. “We talked about just moving the puck quick, that’s something we’ve been struggling with lately, so just moving the puck quick and getting out of our zone as fast as possible. We did that good tonight.”
Braden Holtby got the start for Dallas, and made saves through two periods, he was given the hook in the second intermission.
Jake Oettinger made two saves in the third period.
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