In Dallas, the visiting Nashville Predators took a 2-0 lead into the third period period on Friday night, and then outscored the Stars in a wild third period for the 6-3 win.
Kevin Lankinen made 19 saves in the win.
The Predators improved to 23-18-1.
“I thought we were really good,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “Besides the first five minutes of the game, I thought we did all things we like to do. I don’t think we gave them a lot of space. We nullified their rush game. In the third period, we made it a little harder on ourselves than needed, but it was a great 20-man effort. Everybody was pulling their own tonight.”
Ryan O’Reilly hit for a goal and three points in the win.
“Obviously, that’s a big win for us,” O’Reilly said. “I thought we started the game a little slow, but we kind of weathered the storm. Going into that third period, we stuck with it. It was positive we just kept working to get a huge win like that.”
After a scoreless opening stanza, the Predators hit for a pair of goals in the middle frame.
Nashville’s Jeremy Lauzon scored at 9:22 of the frame for a 1-0 lead.
Tommy Novak pushed the advantage to 2-0 at 13:51.
The Stars dropped to 24-12-5.
“Loved our start,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “Took a bad penalty in the first and kind of lost momentum. Then they, for the rest of the night, just pushed us to the outside. We didn’t get to the inside at all. We didn’t get pucks or bodies into the scoring areas. We played a soft perimeter game for the rest of the game.”
In the third period, the two teams combined for seven goals.
The Stars struck first with a marker from Jani Hakanpää with 69 seconds of frsh ice used in the period to make it 2-1.
“A little slow at the start,” Hakanpaa said. “Got better as we went but just didn’t have it tonight. We weren’t doing enough to win a game here. I think guys in here want to get back at it as fast as we can and show what we can do. I think it’s going to be good for us to get one tomorrow [at the Chicago Blackhawks] right away and use this one as a little bit of motivation to make sure we come out buzzing tomorrow.”
Nashville replied with a strike by O’Reilly at 3:41 to regain the two-goal advantage at 3-1.
“He’s been awesome,” Nashville’s Roman Josi said. “He’s been in the League for a long time. You hear a lot of things, he’s played on different teams, and you hear certain things from other guys. His work ethic, the way he plays, and to have him on your team and see him firsthand, he’s the hardest working guy. He’s the first guy at the rink, last guy to leave. So much detail in his game, and he’s scoring too, so he does it all for us and he’s been unbelievable.”
It was slugfest throughout the period, with Dallas scoring and the Predators replying.
Dallas’ Wyatt Johnston hit at 8:11 to trim the deficit to 3-2, but Filip Forsberg hit off the power play at middle way through the period to reclaim the two-goal lead at 4-2.
The Stars came back with a power play goal from Matt Duchene at 13:36 to get back within one, 4-3.
Again, Dallas could not build off the momentum of another goal and surrendered a strike to Gustav Nyquist who hit an empty net at at 17:27 to push the lead back to two at 5-3.
Juuso Parssinen hit another empty net for the Preds at 19:29 for the 6-3 final count on the scoreboard.
Jake Oettinger made 32 saves in the loss. It was his first game since an injury in mid December.
“I was just happy to get back in there,” Oettinger said. “Two good teams, close game. Things I can definitely be better at, some good stuff I did. Just move on and take the good and learn from the bad. Felt confident going into tonight. Going to look at some tape and work on some stuff, but overall, I feel like I did some good stuff that will help me down the road.”
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