In Dallas, the Stars clinched the top spot in the Central l Division on Saturday with a 3-1 win over the Seattle Kraken. 
Jake Oettinger made 26 saves in the win.
“Proud of the guys and just the body of work over the last six months has been impressive,” Oettinger said. “We should be feeling good about ourselves. We want to play as many games as we can here in the playoffs. It’s just a full year of hard work and consistency. Obviously, we want to hang more important banners than that.”
Dallas improved to 51-21-9,) and have won 11 of their 13 matches.
“I thought it was a great game for us to get ready for the playoffs,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “I credit Seattle for that. I thought they played hard, didn’t give us much. We talked at the end of the first period, like ‘This is going to be like a playoff game. The rush has dried up, they’re not giving you easy rush goals. You’ve got to earn your goals, you’ve got to find your ice in the offensive zone, you’ve got to grind a little bit.’ I thought they made us do that tonight, which, from a coaching perspective, is great heading into the playoffs.”
Dallas took a 1-0 lead in the opening stanza on a marker form Craig Smith, scoring off a tip in with three seconds left on the clock.
“It’s hard to win in this league. Some teams have dropped some good teams,” Smith said. “We keep pressing and we recalibrated between periods and tried to make some changes, which is huge. It’s what we’re going to have to do in the playoffs anyway, so it’s a good test for us. No team is easy to play in this league, so we’ll take it.”
Seattle dropped to 33-33-13.
“I thought the first period was an excellent road period,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We gave one up with a second and a half to go and that took away from what was a real good first period. We did a pretty good job overall today. A little bit too much against in the second period. Probably for me in the game offensively [the key] was not being able to capitalize on the number of outnumbered rushes we had.”
In the middle frame, the Stars pushed the lead to 2-0 on a strike by Jason Robertson at 19:23, scoring on a two-skater power play.
Miro Heiskanen extended the lead to 3-0 at 12:23 of the third, scoring after the puck deflected in.
“It’s great for sure to win it, but the job is far from done,” Heiskanen said. “It’s just the first step. We’ve got a long way to go. I think we’re defending really well right now. We don’t give much, and [Oettinger] and [Scott Wedgewood] have been really good in net. The defense has been really good and have scored some goals too. Played some good offense but I think our defensive game has been a lot better lately.”
Keith Yamamoto ruined the shutout bid at 14:11 to make it 3-1 after a turnover by Dallas. 
“Honestly, I thought we played a good game all around,” Yamamoto said. “Obviously, that goal at the end [of the first] was a great tip. Nothing you can really do about that one, but it was a great tip. That gave them a little bit of life. The second they came out playing and take a 5-on-3 and score, it’s another tough one. The last goal was a weird bounce, and no one really knew where it was besides Heiskanen. He walks around and [Grubauer] basically has it, but it was just a bad bounce off his shoulder. We played well tonight, honestly.”
Philipp Grubauer made 28 saves in the loss.
“We need to win the last couple for our fans and for the city,” Grubauer said. “Today wasn’t it, but we get a chance for tomorrow (against the St. Louis Blues).”
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