Sam Steel’s goal midway through the second period and Jake Oettinger’s 47 saves helped the Dallas Stars defeat the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 on Tuesday night to record their fourth straight victory.
In keeping with their recent winning ways, Dallas continued to commemorate Joe Pavelski’s 1,300th NHL game with another goal from Matt Duchene. The 39-year-old Wisconsin native Pavelski became the ninth player born in the United States to accomplish that feat in his career and the 69th overall
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After starting a three-game road trip, the Stars improved to 5-0-1 in their last six games and 9-2-1 in their last twelve.
Buffalo, which missed its fourth opportunity to win three games in a row, was led by Tage Thompson in the scoring. The Sabres’ latest three-game winning streak dates back to April 6–10 of the previous season.
In a game between rested teams that hadn’t played since January 27, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 28 saves. Although Luukkonen was not tested as frequently as Oettinger, he was adroit in preserving the score during a third period in which the Stars missed two opportunities to take a two-man advantage, one lasting 89 seconds and the other eighteen.
The Stars were outshot 32-12 in the first two periods and 48-31 overall, but they never trailed after Duchene’s power-play goal at 3:58.
With 10:56 remaining in the second, just over three minutes after Thompson had knotted the score, Steel scored the game-winning goal.
The ball trickled down Luukkonen’s right arm and landed at the feet of Stars winger Radek Faksa, whose shot through the crease bounced in off Steel’s skate, after Craig Smith’s first attempt had caught Luukkonen high on his chest.
That was sufficient for Oettinger, who moved to block Casey Mittelstadt’s snap shot with ten seconds remaining from the left circle. Oettinger, who missed 12 games due to a lower-body injury, is now 6-2 in his last eight outings.
Halfway through the first, he held his ground to block Jeff Skinner’s backhander off a breakaway. Then he drove in alone up the left wing to stop defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. Oettinger managed to get a piece of Dahlin’s photo, diverting the puck into the netting above the boards without causing any injury. As the puck dropped, Dahlin caught it and instantly threw it down out of frustration.
At 4:35 of the third, Oettinger made another outstanding save, this time stopping Dylan Cozens’ low attempt from the high slot by getting his blocker down.
Thompson beat Oettinger high on the short side with a one-timer from the left circle after Dahlin set him up.
