In Dallas, Jason Robertson hit for a hat trick on Thursday night to lead the Stars to a 5-0 shelling of the Anaheim Ducks.
Robertson has 22 goals on the season.
“I’m just getting in position to shoot the puck,” Robertson said. “Just got to get past the first guy and get it to the net. I’m happy my mom was able to make it and watch it. She’s probably over the moon right now and excited.”
Jake Oettinger made 31 saves in the shutout.
“You almost have to sit and think about it after, about how special it is what you’re witnessing,” Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. “It’s unbelievable. He’s making it look easy, and it’s one of the hardest things there is to do, to score in this league at this level.”
Anaheim dropped to 6-16-2.
“It’s a good team, they’re well balanced,” Anaheim forward Simon Benoit said. “They bring that puck deep, they go to the net. When we give them a little bit of space, they just take it. I think that’s what they did. We let off that hook a little bit, and they just capitalized on those [mistakes] we have.”
Dallas improved to 14-6-4.
Robertson scored twice to give the Stars a 2-0 lead, his first was off the power play in the first period.
“He’s our first-line guy, and he could take all the optionals and show up last on the ice and stuff, but he’s the exact opposite,” Oettinger said. “He wants to do the goalie drills every day. He likes to have fun with us, but I think he’s doing it because he wants to learn how to score. Obviously, it’s working, so he needs to keep doing that.”
Joel Kiviranta made it 3-0 in the middle frame.
Robertson finished off the trick in the third with a second power play goal, for a 4-0 lead.
Dallas’ Wyatt Johnston scored just past the midway point of the third for the 5-0 final.
“We just need to play the same way, all night, 60 minutes,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. “There’s no reason to change off of a game plan. We started to want to take chances, and that’s an experienced team. If you’re going to take chances, they’re going to make you pay. That is a team to be reckoned with over there. They play a very efficient game. They’re not going to give you much and they’re just waiting for you to leave something on the table. They caught us from behind, we weren’t moving our feet. We turned over pucks, they went the other way quickly.”
Anthony Stolarz made 36 saves in the Ducks loss.
“To a man, we should all be embarrassed with the effort,” Ducks forward Derek Grant said. “Once they got their second and third, it’s like we all just sat back and didn’t want to win. You can’t play like that in this league, you’re going to get burned. Guys need to be [ticked] off, they need to be embarrassed. It’s not fun for anyone, but you’ve got to find a way to take that and use it for fuel.”
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