In Newark, the visiting Dallas Stars downed the the New Jersey Devils, 6-2, on Saturday. 
The Stars took a 4-0 lead into the third period.
Roope Hintz hit for a double in the Dallas win.
“It was a big answer. We usually answer pretty well when we don’t play well,” Hintz said of the Stars, who lost 5-1 to the Philadelphia Flyers Thursday. “I think it’s mostly mental, and then of course you have to execute on the ice, too. It starts with good preparation mentally when you’re ready to play, and we were today.”
The Stars improved to 27-13-5.
Scott Wedgewood made 29 saves in the win.
“Roope was great. Our whole team was dialed in tonight. Our detail was good,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “Wedgewood was fantastic. That’s what we needed out of him. You’re getting into the real tough stretch of games here. We’ve got to play both goalies. That’s the type of effort we need out of him when he goes in there. I thought he was our best player tonight.”
Dallas was coming off a 5-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Stars took a 1-0 lead in the opening stanza on a power play strike by Joe Pavelski at 5:42.
Hintz picked up his first of the game with a shorthanded goal 0 at 7:58 of the middle frame to push the lead to 2-0.
New Jersey dropped to 23-18-3.
“I think they just outcompeted us today,” New Jersey’s Nico Hischier said. “Overall, [they] were just a better team. Forecheck better, skate better. Tough to win a game if we play the way we did and how they play the way they did.”
Dallas scored two more in the second period to take a 4-0 lead.
Matt Duchene connected at 16:31 to make it 3-0.
“Every time I step in there, the guys are going to get everything I have to give them a chance to win,” Wedgewood said. “Early on, I was able to turn away a few of their flurries, and then we pop a couple [of goals]. The boys settled in, and we played a very structured game.”
Hintz collected his double at with 18 seconds left in the middle frame for a 4-0 advantage.
“We’ve got to be better as a group to keep things simple,” New Jersey’s Jesper Bratt said. “We need to be more desperate. There’s [defensive] zone plays where we could’ve ended plays early, and there’s some attention to detail that’s leading to goals when there’s a few seconds left in the period, and those goals change momentum.”
Dallas kept the offense humming in the third period when they ballooned their lead to 6-0.
Craig Smith score4d at 2:10 of the third, and Wyatt Johnston made it 6-0 at 7:18.
Bratt ruined the shutout bid at 13:15 to make it 6-1, and Tyler Toffoli scored with 60 seconds left on the game clock for the 6-2 final count on the scoreboard.
“You’ve got to give them credit, they got some key saves at big moments,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “We were only beat by a power play. Their speed obviously gave our [defense] a little bit of a problem. It wasn’t that we were giving up odd-numbered rushes. We were playing a pretty simple game. But when you get down and start to press a little bit, it’s hard. It’s hard to get back into a game against a team like that that will take advantage of mistakes you make.”
Nico Daws made 30 saves in the loss.
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