In Dallas, the visiting Chicago Blackhawks took an early 1-0 lead over the Stars in the first period, and then added three more in the second period to take a 4-0 lead after 40 minutes of play.
Kevin Lankinen made 28 saves to backstop the Hawks to a 4-2 win on Thursday night.
By the time the Stars got their offense working it was too late.
“The power play was awful, the penalty kill wasn’t good enough,” Dallas head coach Rick Bowness said. “When you’re off like that, you would hope your power play would get you a goal to get you going. It didn’t happen tonight. Again, [the Blackhawks] had two even-strength shots on net after 40 minutes. The good things we’re doing are getting lost because we’re not scoring on the chances that we had, and the special teams clearly were the difference tonight.”
Roope Hintz and John Klingberg scored in the third period when the Blackhawks had gift wrapped the win to send home.
Dominik Kubalik put the Hawks up, 1-0, in the first period.
“It is harder [seeing the puck], just because you don’t have any other shots than screened shots, tipped shots, all that stuff,” Khudobin said. “Even on that second goal, I pretty much clearly had it, but at the same time the blade was almost half a foot from me, and [Soderberg] just deflected it and it went in.”
Carl Soderberg and Duncan Keith pushed the lead to 3-0.
“It probably wasn’t our best game, but we got the two points, so we need to take the positives,” Keith said. “Our power play was good (2-for-5), I thought our penalty kill did a really good job, especially on that 5-on-3 killing it.”
Alex DeBrincat capped the scoring to make it 4-0.
“It was a big win, an important win,” Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton said. “We knew they were going to be a desperate team again. It certainly wasn’t perfect, but I thought we found ways to defend. Obviously, the special teams were big for us, and [Lankinen] made a couple saves early, especially in the first period, that allowed us to take control of the game.”
Dallas was scoreless in five power play chances.
“If our penalty kill can step up and kill those penalties, I think it’s a different game,” the Stars’ Blake Comeau said. “You get some momentum and it keeps the game tighter.”
Anton Khudobin surrendered four goals and made four saves, he got the hook in the second intermission.
Jake Oettinger made eight saves in the third period and picked up an assist, his first NHL point.
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