In Nashville, the visiting Dallas Stars put up a nine spot in 9-2 win over the Predators on Thursday night.
Wyatt Johnston and Matt Duchene hit for doubles in the win. Johnson had four points on the night.
Jake Oettinger made 20 saves before leaving the game. in the second intermission
Scott Wedgewood made seven saves in relief.
The Stars moved to 34-14-6.
Dallas took complete control of the game in the opening stanza when they potted goals.
“I loved our start,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “That’s probably the best start we’ve had all year. I thought we were on our toes executing. We’ve had a good schedule here recently. It starts to get busy now, but I thought we were rested. We had good legs, and I thought we looked really good.”
Dallas took a quick 1-0 lead with 35 seconds gone in the opening stanza when Sam Steel scored off a shot through a maze of players.
Matt Duchene pushed the lead to 2-0 at 4:27 off an odd man rush.
“You never think you’re going to score nine, but we’re a really good offensive team,” Duchene said. “I think we’ve made some adjustments lately that made us even more dynamic. It’s working.”
The Stars extended the lead to 3-0 off a marker from Craig Smith at 12:31.
Johnston potted his first of the night at 15:53 off a rebound to balloon the lead to 4-02.
Nashville had one shot on goal in the first period.
“It’s funny how it works, right?” Dallas’ Ryan Suter said. “Some games, you dominate and you can’t buy a goal, and then some nights, it goes in. Tonight was one of those nights. The effort was there, so it starts with that, and then we were able to get some bounces.”
The Predators dropped to 27-25-2.
“Just a terrible game by us,” Nashville’s Ryan McDonagh said. “No other way to sugarcoat it. Weren’t ready to play. Lost every battle. Just gave them free offense and hung our goalie out to dry. That’s the worst part is leaving our goalies out to dry like that.”
The middle frame was no better for the Predators.
Miro Heiskanen pushed the advantage to 5-0 at 4:40 of the second.
Nashville finally got on the board with a strike by Cole Smith at 9:50 of the second for a 5-1 score to the Stars.
“Our season is on the line,” Predators defenseman Roman Josi said. “We need to figure it out. Saturday [at the St. Louis Blues] is going to be a huge game, especially after this one. Obviously, you never want to feel like that. You’ve got to bottle it up and find a way to motivate yourself.”
Tyler Seguin hit off a power play midway through the second period to stretch the lead to 6-1.
Tommy Novak scored for Nashville at 11:21 of the second to make it, 6-2 to Dallas.
Duchene collected his double with 12 seconds left in the period for a 7-2 lead headed to the third period.
“We got contributions from everyone,” DeBoer said. “Our fourth line got two of the first three goals. That was critical. You need depth scoring. I thought Duchene’s line was fantastic. They created something every time they were out there. Everyone was going tonight. We didn’t have any passengers.”
In the third, Ty Dellandrea added a marker at 3:50 for an 8-2 lead.
Johnson collected his double at 8:50 of the period on a power play strike for the 9-2 final count on the scoreboard.
Juuse Saros got the start, he made 14 saves before getting the hook in the first intermission.
Kevin Lankinen made 18 saves in a mop up role.
“It’s disappointing,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “I think it can only be addressed so many times. Either we’re not taking it seriously enough, or we’re not understanding. The response and the mindset are really disappointing.”
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