CALGARY — The Dallas Stars are rolling, backstopped by Jake Oettinger, who was excellent again on Wednesday.
Oettinger made 43 stops and Jamie Benn paced the attack with a goal and an assist as the Stars hung on for a 4-3 victory over the slumping Calgary Flames.
"I feel pretty good,” said Oettinger, who improved to 5-0-1. “The team's played well in front of me. Just have to do my job, make a few big saves every night.”
Down 4-2 after 40 minutes, Calgary pushed hard in the third, outshooting the visitors 22-5, but a Mackenzie Weegar power-play goal at 2:20 was the lone puck to beat Oettinger.
"He's a rock for us,” said Stars coach Peter DeBoer. “You take it for granted. You get used to it when you have a guy like that. He's elite. He's been our best player on almost every night he's played."
Jason Robertson, Evgenii Dadonov, and Mason Marchment also scored for Dallas (6-1-1), which has won five of its last six. Roope Hintz chipped in a pair of assists.
“Jakey's a stud,” said Benn. “We don't get any of those wins without him. He's played some great hockey to start the year here.”
Andrew Mangiapane and Connor Zary, in his NHL debut, also scored for Calgary (2-7-1). The Flames have lost six games in a row in regulation for the first time since they went seven games without picking up a point from March 16-29, 2018.
“We had a lull in the second period which cost us the night,” said Flames coach Ryan Huska. “The third period was more of our team showing a little bit of swagger. It's not easy when you're going through these stretches of games, but the only way to get out of it is together and I thought in the third period, we did a much better job of that.”
Jacob Markstrom, who had 27 saves, was tagged with the loss. He's 0-6-1 in his last seven starts after getting the win in the club's season opener.
"If we continue to play the way we did in that third period, this is a group that's capable of winning a few in a row," said Flames centre Nazem Kadri. "So, we've just got to build off it."
Trailing 2-1 in the second, the Stars tied it at 4:35 when the visitors quickly pushed the puck up ice with Robertson taking a pass from Hintz and beating Markstrom along the ice.
After Dadonov ripped a shot top corner at 10:06 to give Dallas its first lead, Marchment made it a two-goal cushion by one-timing Matt Duchene's centring pass with 12 seconds left in the period.
Zary had Calgary's best chance in the third when the 22-year-old broke in off the left wing, turned Jani Hakanpaa inside out, and tried a deke to his backhand, only to have Oettinger get his left pad on it.
“I did what I wanted to do,” said Zary, who played on a line with Kadri and Yegor Sharangovich. “I feel like I was able to showcase myself a little bit. First period, I was a little nervous and had to get the butterflies out, but I think it just became another hockey game once the second started.”
Zary had opened the game's scoring on his third NHL shift. Chris Tanev's point shot deflected in front and went right to him in the crease, where he was able to knock the puck into the vacant net.
“I thought Connor was excellent tonight. He played with confidence. He played with courage and he was one of our better forwards,” Huska said. “When he was on the ice, there was impact. When he was on the ice, he skated, he wanted the puck and he made plays when he had it, and he didn't do it in a risky or unreliable way.”
Zary, from Saskatoon, was Calgary's first-round pick (24th overall) in 2020.
Dallas tied it 1-1 on a short-handed goal at 19:06 of the opening period. With Markstrom out of his net to play the puck along the end boards, the puck didn't make it out of the trapezoid, leaving him trapped out of position, and Hintz was first there to retrieve it and set up Benn in front.
Also caught out of position on that play was Flames defenceman Rasmus Andersson, who was making his return to the lineup after serving his four-game suspension for a hit on Columbus Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine.
MISSING FROM ACTION
Calgary was without D Nikita Zadorov (family matter) and F Dillon Dube (undisclosed injury). Absent for the Stars was F Radek Faksa (upper body).
ZARY DEBUT
Zary is the first Flames player to score in his first NHL game since defenceman Patrick Sieloff on April 9, 2016. Zary was recalled on Tuesday from the AHL, where he led the Calgary Wranglers with 10 points (1 goal, 9 assists) in six games.
5-ON-5 STRUGGLES
With three more goals surrendered at five-on-five, the Flames have given up 27 on the season, which leads the NHL. Meanwhile, they've only scored 12. Only Washington (10), St. Louis (10) and San Jose (6) have scored fewer.
UP NEXT
Stars: Travel up the highway to Edmonton to face the Oilers on Thursday.
Flames: Take on the Seattle Kraken on the road on Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2023.
Darren Haynes, The Canadian Press
