In Dallas, the Stars took a 2-0 lead on the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday en route to a 5-1 win.
Five different skaters hit for the Stars.
Roope Hintz scored at 9:21 of the first to stake the Stars to a 1-0 advantage.
Evgenii Dadonov scored at 15:21 to push the lead to 2-0.
Jake Oettinger made 31 saves for the win.
Dallas improved to 26-12-5.
“We did what we were supposed to do against a team on the end of a [six]-game road trip coming off a back-to-back, and that was start well and finish well,” Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said.
In the middle frame, Drew Doughty scored off the power play with 91 seconds gone in the frame to trim the deficit to 2-1.
LA dropped to 21-12-8 and are starting to hear footsteps from the Edmonton Oilers on their heels for the third spot in the Pacific Division.
“Listen, nothing’s going for us right now, and we’re going to come out of it and we’re going to be stronger for it,” LA’s Trevor Lewis said. “We’ve just got to keep fighting and keep working through it.”
Dallas replied to the Doughty goal with a strike by Wyatt Johnston to make the score, 3-1, at 5:49 of the second.
“He’s a lot of fun to play with and can obviously shoot the puck really well,” Johnston said of Hintz. “I think, for me, it’s just trying to find him. He’s pretty good at finding open spaces and good at finding you when you’re in open space. He’s just a really special player.”
In quick order, the Stars’ Joe Pavelski scored at 6:52 to push the advantage to 4-1.
“You want to give, especially the groups with history, as much runway as you can to try and get it together,” DeBoer said. “But you’re halfway through the season now, so it’s time to make some changes if things aren’t turning around with some of the groupings.”
Sam Steel scored a short-handed goal on a 2-on-1 at 9:33 for the 5-1 final.
“Sometimes when you play back-to-back (games) and travel like we did, it does take a little bit to get your legs going,” Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. “In the second, we were well connected. We looked fast. We were on top of them.”
Dallas added a shorthanded marker from Sam Steel midway through the second for the 5-1 final count on the scoreboard.
“You have to just be patient, don’t force it, and the chances will come,” Dallas’ Radek Faksa said. “Even the PP makes mistakes sometimes.”
Cam Talbot made 22 saves in the loss.
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