Stars blank Oilers for team-record 8th straight win

DALLAS (AP) — Jake Oettinger stopped 35 shots for his second consecutive shutout, Radek Faksa scored early and assisted on two of the four Dallas goals in a less than 7-minute span of the second period, and the Stars beat Edmonton 5-0 Wednesday night to set a franchise record with their eighth win in a row.

“There’s been a lot of great teams in this organization over the years, so to have the longest win streak is pretty cool,” Oettinger said. “And hopefully we can grow that as much as we can.”

The winning streak, which included their four previous games on the road, has put the Stars atop the Western Conference standings with 105 points. They are only one point behind the New York Rangers for the most in the NHL with six games remaining for both teams.

Wyatt Johnston and Sam Steele each also had a goal and an assist for Dallas, which six times previously had seven-game winning streaks they weren’t able to extend. Tyler Seguin added a power play goal and captain Jamie Benn scored his 19th goal for a group that already has seven 20-goal scorers.

“It starts with a goalie. I thought he was our best player. He was fantastic, and he was fantastic early in that game when we were little, I thought, tentative the first kind of 10 minutes,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “Couple of momentum-shifting saves in the middle of the game there where it could have gotten a lot closer.”

Oettinger was coming off 17 saves Saturda y at Seattle. He had to work a lot harder for this one, his 10th career shutout and the first time he held consecutive opponents without a goal. He has now gone gone seven-plus periods, about 152 minutes, since allowing a goal.

Edmonton goalie Calvin Pickard, playing his 19th game this season, had 27 saves.

The Oilers, second in the Pacific Division with 95 points, where shut out for only the third time this season. They were 0 for 4 on power plays.

“Absolutely a lot of credit to Dallas Stars. They’re playing really good hockey, they are really good team,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Coming here was a challenge for us and we came up short. I thought it was a good test to see how good we are, and we still have some work do to to catch up to them.”

Dallas led for good only 2:08 into the game on Craig Smith’s takeaway from Leon Draisaitl at the blue line, with the puck going to Steel before Faksa poked it through the legs of Pickard for his seventh goal of the season and first in 10 games.

Johnston scored his 30th goal right after exiting the penalty box. The 20-year-old in his second full season joined a rush out of the box, with Faksa getting the secondary assist on the play when Johnston knocked in a pass from Thomas Harley for a 3-0 lead. Benn and Steel scored in a 22-second span late in the period.

Seguin got the second-period scoring started with 6:44 left with his sniper shot from the right of Pickard that went behind the goal after Miro Heiskanen’s pass across the top of the crease.

Oettinger had several impressive saves, and withstood a 35-second flurry by Edmonton was on a power play early in the second period in what was still a 1-0 lead.

Leon Draisaitl had a shot off the right post that ricocheted back in front and was smothered by Oettinger. He then made a glove save on a shot by Connor McDavid before handling Evan Bouchard’s shot into the goalie’s gut. Oettinger already had 20 saves by then.

UP NEXT

Oilers are home Friday night against Colorado.

The Stars, who also have a seven-game winning streak on the road, play their final road games of the regular season. They are at Chicago on Saturday, and Colorado on Sunday.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL