Stars swipe Panthers,5-1

In Dallas, Jason Robertson hit for a double on Sunday afternoon, and the Stars stopped the Florida Panthers, 5-1.“I got a lot of Grade A looks tonight,” Robertson said. “When you get that many, your confidence starts to feel good, especially when you get one early and just start hammering away.”

Jake Oettinger made 27 saves in the Dallas win.

“Real slow start. I thought our energy wasn’t great,” Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. “I think that last [road trip from Jan. 3-4], getting back really late, I think we carried that a little bit into the first period.

“[Oettinger] was our best player, that’s exactly the story. The goalie gave us a chance to get our legs under us. We got some timely goals, and we won the special teams battle, which is critical and a big piece of what we’ve done all year.”

The Stars improved to 24-11-6.

“Obviously, you don’t want a ton of Grade A’s [against], but sometimes you need to be sharp early and let the guys find their legs,” Oettinger said. “After that first period, where they were great, we were the better team and our guys scored some big goals. It’s fun to win at home.”

Carter Verhaeghe was the lone striker for the Panthers, his second period goal cut the Panthers lead at the time to 2-1.

Nils Lundkvist added to the Robertson first period goal to make the Dallas advantage 2-0 in the middle frame.

“Definitely want to get the first goal in every game, especially when we’re kind of on our heels,” Robertson said. “[We] kind of slowed down their momentum and tried to take over in the second and third period.”

Just 39 seconds after the Panthers scored, Esa Lindell hit for a goal to make it 3-1 to Dallas.

“Our effort was there,” Florida captain Aleksander Barkov said. “I think the first and second period, we played well enough to maybe come out with the lead after the second period. I feel like they’ve just got the goals and the confidence, and then they shut it down in the third period.”

Robertson scored early in the third period for his double to give the Stars a 4-1 lead.

Miro Heiskanen  hit an empty net at 15:49 of the third for the 5-1 final.

“We really liked our game to 2-1,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “When they made it 3-1, I really didn’t like our game after that. [We] absolutely stopped skating, and that was the driver for us early through the 3-1 goal. After that, we tried to do it a different, easier. I’m not sure what way we were trying to do it, but we stopped moving our feet, and (you) can’t play the game if you’re not skating.”

Roope Hintz was injured in the first period, left the ice and did not return.

Spencer Knight made 29 saves in the Panthers loss.

“[Oettinger]’s a good goalie and a good goalie for a reason. We need to make it more difficult,” Verhaeghe said. “Shoot the puck, and when we get chances, we’ve got to bare down and bury pucks. We need to work on it in practice. They’re a really talented team, and [we] just have to find a way to bury it.”