In Dallas, the Stars won their fifth straight game on Tuesday night, defeating the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-1.
Roope Hintz hit for a hat trick for Dallas.
“Right now, it’s going in,” Hintz said. “I’m getting good passes from my linemates (Pavelski, Jason Robertson) and teammates, so that helps.”
Braden Holtby made 39 saves in the Dallas win.
“It always helps at the start of the game when you can get a few shots to get you into the game,” Holtby said. “The way Carolina plays, you know that’s going to come. They work non-stop, and one of their big things is getting pucks to the net and recoveries off rebounds and kind of swarming that way. You know there’s going to be a high quantity usually when you play them. You’ve just got to bear down in those areas, and I thought our guys did a phenomenal job tonight in those tough areas around the net.”
The Stars improved to 11-7-2.
“It’s not exactly how we drew it up,” Stars coach Rick Bowness said. “But good teams find a way to win, and right now we’re finding a way to win. That team is so hard to play against. They make you play on the boards, and they’re there first, and they’re big and they’re heavy.
“They made us play a game we really haven’t had to play yet this year. But again, good teams find a way to win.”
Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored the lone Carolina goal.
Carolina dropped to 15-5-1.
“Ideally, we’d never lose two games in a row,” Carolina’s Ian Cole said. “Maybe that’s a bit of a pipe dream, but that’s the goal. I think the foundational mindset behind that is, ‘Hey, let’s right the ship right away, let’s not let this linger. Let’s continue to play well,’ but hey, we lost. That’s not good enough.
“The name of the game as a professional athlete is to win. That’s it. That should be our only focus. We played well today, we had a lot of shots, we had a lot of Grade A [chances]. We should have scored more goals, you know, X, Y, and Z, but we lost. So really, that’s all that matters. We need to figure out ways to win, and we need to figure them out quick. We can’t let this continue to slide, it’s only going to hurt us in the long run.”
Joe Pavelski also scored for the Stars and added two assists.
“I’m just going through the goals, one hit the ref, hit the linesman. It doesn’t get in, they turn around, 2-on-1, in your net,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “The other one, we didn’t get it in, and it’s in your net the other way. Those can’t happen. The mistakes we’re making are costing us. That’s basically what’s happening, where it’s not going the other way. Obviously, they’re making mistakes, because we’re getting a ton of chances. But the ones we’re making are biting us right now.”
Hintz finished the hat trick with an empty-net goal with less than three minutes to go in the third period.
“A ton of speed, a big body, skates well, shoots it,” Pavelski said of Hintz. “(He) wants to shoot [the puck]. Makes a lot of good little plays and competes. That’s No. 1, he competes. He’s been playing great, and it’s great to see the puck go in the net for him. He’s one of the guys that drives this team.”
Frederik Andersen made 13 saves in the Canes loss.
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