Mikko Rantanen had a goal and three assists and Jake Oettinger made 26 saves in his second straight shutout, helping the visiting Dallas Stars to a 4-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.
Wyatt Johnston had three assists and Jason Robertson, Sam Steel and Roope Hintz also scored for the Stars, who were coming off a 5-0 win against the visiting San Jose Sharks on Monday after dropping their first two games of the season.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 14 saves for the Sabres, who had won two in a row after dropping their season opener.
Robertson notched his second goal of the season at 9:03 of the first period to give the Stars a 1-0 lead.
Dallas broke up a rush in its end and headed the other way on a 2-on-1 break. Rantanen passed the puck to Robertson near the red line, and Buffalo defenseman Mattias Samuelsson opted to prevent the pass back to Rantanen. That opened a window for Robertson to take a snap shot from the right faceoff circle that beat Luukkonen to the far side.
The Stars scored three more times in the second period.
Steel took a wrist shot from between the circles that slipped through Luukkonen’s pads to stretch the lead to 2-0 at 9:36.
Nils Lundkvist took a shot from the left point that sailed wide, but the puck banked off the end boards and out the other side of the Buffalo goal, where Rantanen was waiting to backhand the puck into the net for a 3-0 lead at 13:57.
Hintz made it 4-0 at 15:34, when he found the net with a snap shot from the inside edge of the right faceoff circle on a power play. It was Dallas’ first power-play goal of the season in its 10th man-advantage opportunity.
Oettinger has 18 shutouts in 299 NHL starts.
–Field Level Media
