Jake Oettinger made 30 saves in his 14th career shutout and the Dallas Stars defeated the New Jersey Devils 3-0 in Newark on Wednesday night.
Defenseman Miro Heiskanen had a goal and an assist and Jason Robertson and Mikko Rantanen also scored for the Stars, who extended their point streak to eight games (6-0-2). Jamie Benn and defenseman Esa Lindell each had two assists. It was Oettinger’s second shutout of the season.
Jacob Markstrom stopped 25 shots for the Devils, who lost their third straight, all on home ice.
Dallas scored twice in the second half of the second period to take a 2-0 lead after New Jersey dominated the first half.
Heiskanen made it 1-0 with 8:26 left in the middle period when he beat Markstrom from the right circle.
Robertson put in a shot from the bottom of the right circle with 2:24 remaining in the second after a give and go with Lindell.
Rantanen made it 3-0, 7:05 into the third period. He tipped Lindell’s shot out of the air down and between Markstrom’s legs and then tapped the puck into the net from the crease.
Oettinger made two big saves on Dawson Mercer late in the second.
He denied Mercer on a tip attempt from the lip of the crease with 3:37 left in the second and, with New Jersey short-handed, made an outstanding stop on Mercers’s shot from the bottom of the right circle with 1:08 remaining in the middle period.
Oettinger stopped Juho Lammikko on a partial breakaway and Luke Glendening hit the goal post on the rebound in the last 90 seconds of the first period.
It was an up and down, but close checking opening period with the Devils registering an 8-6 shots advantage.
It was Dallas’ first game without Tyler Seguin, who is likely out for the season with an ACL injury suffered in Tuesday night’s OT loss road loss to the New York Rangers.
New Jersey defenseman Brenden Dillon was honored before the opening faceoff for playing in his 1,000th career game on Monday.
–Field Level Media
