In Dallas, the Stars’ special teams worked hard in a 4-1 win over the St Louis Blues on Saturday.
Roope Hintz hit for two shorthanded goals, and Ryan Suter added a power play marker in the win.
“Speed, anticipation, strong on the puck,” Dallas head coach Rick Bowness said of Hintz. “That’s a franchise record, two shorthanded goals in a game. [Hintz] can play against anybody in the League, I’m not worried about him. He’s very underrated defensively, and he’s one of our best penalty killers.”
Jake Oettinger made 35 saves in the Dallas win.
“[Oettinger] was great,” Bowness said. “He was really, really good. He’s eating the puck and reading the plays really, really well. No rebounds and swallowing the puck when he had to. He reads the play really well and his anticipation is really good. He was outstanding. He’s a young goalie and is going to have some ups and downs, and that goes with it, but the important thing is you see the high end.”
Brandon Saad was the lone goal scorer for the Blues.
“They were very hungry coming off a tough loss,” St. Louis’ Ryan O’Reilly said. “They came super aggressive, and it’s tough when they do that. It’s tough to make clean plays, and it’s not one guy specifically at fault there. It’s all of us together.”
St Louis dropped to 9-6-1.
“You could tell we were fighting the puck tonight,” O’Reilly said. “I myself felt it multiple times. Not settling it, not getting it flat and able to make a hard play. It happened multiple times where we were just kind of shoveling it on when it’s not in full control.”
Dallas improved to 7-7-2.
Hintz’s first goal came off a 2-on-1 rush.
“I saw that [Raffl] was skating, getting the puck, so I just tried to join with him,” Hintz said. “And then I saw that there was only one [defenseman] in the play, so it was good. … It’s a big one that you get [the pass] on the tape because you’re trying to skate fast, so if it’s not there, it might be a missed chance, but today I got two nice passes, so it was great.”
Jamie Benn added a late empty-net goal to ice the 4-1 win.
“Obviously, it’s tough to win a hockey game when you [allow two shorthanded goals],” Saad said. “It’s hard to explain. I think the execution could be a little sharper. Obviously, they capitalized on their chances, but we can’t be having that.”
Jordan Binnington made 29 saves in the Blues loss.
“Give [the Stars] credit, they jumped on things, they were quick,” St. Louis head coach Craig Berube said. “It was a tight game all around. It was a tough game, there wasn’t a lot of room, and they checked well. And they capitalized more than us on their chances.”
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