In Dallas, the visiting Montreal Canadiens took a 2-0 lead on goals in the first and second periods on Friday, and promptly surrendered four unanswered goals in a 4-2 loss to the Stars.
“You have to give Montreal credit. Last game before Christmas, it’s always hard to keep your team focused on the task at hand,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “Everyone’s got family and places to go. I give them credit. They came ready to play, they were really good and put us in a hole.”
The Habs took a 1-0 lead in the first on a power play strike from Jake Evans.
The Canadiens extended the lead to 2-0, on a goal from Michael Pezzetta at 2:24 of the middle frame.
“It’s frustrating,” Montreal forward Jake Evans said. “I feel like we’ve been growing as a team when it comes to having that lead and keeping it. That’s just a really good team. Kind of shot ourselves in the foot with penalties. I think the first two periods, we played really well 5-on-5. If we’d stuck with that, I think we would have been smooth sailing.”
From there it was all Dallas as Roope Hintz scored in the second and early third periods to knot the game, 2-2.
“[Pezzetta] is a guy that takes care of the team. I know he’s going to have a tough time sleeping about the penalty he took,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “The game happens fast. … You know what you’re going to get from [Pezzetta]. Tonight he got rewarded for some quality plays, and unfortunately that penalty costs, and I know he’s going to take it to heart.”
Jake Oettinger made 22 saves for in the Dallas win.
The Stars improved to 20-9-6.
“The early penalty kind of killed our start, and they score obviously,” Dallas’ Jason Robertson said. “But we’re a resilient group and responded the right way. Glad we got it done tonight.”
Hintz scored off the power play in the second period.
Dallas did not take the lead until 15:00 of the third when Wyatt Johnston hit for a power play goal and a 3-2 advantage.
“I’m just trying to do my best to help the team win, help pitch in,” Johnston said. “Lucky enough I’ve been able to get some bounces the last three games. I look forward to trying to keep it going and help the team win games.”
Montreal dropped to 15-16-3.
“We know our brand of hockey, when we’re on top of teams playing fast and playing hard and quick, we’re a very good hockey team, as we showed today for most of the game,” Pezzetta said. “I think that was the message going into the game was to play fast, play on top of guys, and raise our standard.”
The Stars sealed it with an empty-net goal from Joel Kiviranta with 17 seconds left in the third.
Jake Allen made 32 saves in the Montreal loss.
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