Jake Oettinger made 27 saves for his third shutout of the season as the Dallas Stars cruised to a 4-0 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday afternoon in Las Vegas.
It was the fifth shutout of Oettinger’s career and his 20th victory of the season. It also marked the first time this season that the Golden Knights, who were last shut out by Edmonton’s Mike Smith on April 16, 2022, were blanked.
Jamie Benn, Joel Kiviranta, Ryan Suter and Tyler Seguin scored goals and Ty Dellandrea added two assists for Dallas, which snapped a two-game losing streak.
The contest marked the first time that Stars coach Peter DeBoer, who went 98-50-12 in two-plus seasons as head coach for Vegas, opposed the Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena since his firing last May. DeBoer and longtime assistant Steve Spott received a video tribute during a first-period break.
Vegas goalie Logan Thompson, who has won just twice in his last seven starts (2-4-1), stopped 32 of 35 shots. The Golden Knights took their second straight loss while also dropping to 13-12-0 at home.
Dallas jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 5:45 of the first period on Benn’s 17th goal of the season. Benn intercepted a Brayden McNabb clearing pass along the right boards and then curled around and fired a wrist shot from the high slot past Thompson’s blocker side and into the top right corner of the net.
Kiviranta made it 2-0 midway through the second period. His long wrist shot from the left point deflected off the stick of Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and inside the right post for his sixth goal of the season.
Suter extended the lead to 3-0 at the 7:51 mark of third period. His long wrist shot from the left point through traffic caromed into the net off Pietrangelo’s hand for his first goal of the season.
Vegas pulled Thompson for an extra attacker, and Seguin squashed any hopes of a dramatic comeback with an empty-net goal with 43.2 seconds left.
Golden Knights defenseman Alec Martinez left the game early in the second period due to an undisclosed injury and didn’t return.
–Field Level Media
