In Dallas, the visiting Edmonton Oilers were without Connor McDavid who was sick and they came up short in a 4-1 loss to the Stars.
“It went up and down,” Oilers head coach Ken Hitchcock said. “He was out, he was in, he was out, he was in. At the end, he was out, both him and Spooner.
“Got to move on. You’ve got to be able to win games if you’re missing one guy. It’s not the end of the world.”
Dallas benefited from the return of Brett Ritchie to the lineup after a stretch of healthy scratches; he scored once and had two points on the night.
“I thought Ritchie was the best he’s been. We’ve been talking to him about his puck possession being better. And the first goal of the game, he wins a forecheck, protects it and moves it and it ended up being the goal,” Stars head coach Jim Montgomery said.
Jason Dickinson and Jamie Benn also scored for the Stars who improved to 15-10-3.
Ryan Spooner was also a scratch with an injury for the Oilers.
“Obviously when you lose two guys like Connor and [Spooner], it’s going to impact you. But the way you respond shows a lot, and I thought we actually did respond to that well,” Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said after the loss.
Anton Khudobin made 28 saves for Dallas in the win; Jujhar Khaira scored the Oilers’ lone goal.
The Oilers dropped to 13-12-2 with the loss and 4-2-1 since Hitchcock assumed the head coaching duties.
Esa Lindell closed out the scoring with an empty-net for the 4-1 final.
[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Stars highlights]
Mikko Koskinen made 21 saves in the loss.
“The players are good enough to be able to go out there and create something,” the Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl said. “They got that second goal against us. Our heads kind of went … they sunk down a little bit.”
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