The Stars came home Saturday night and defeated the Flyers 5-1 in what head coach Glen Gulutzan called, “their most complete game from start to finish this season.”
Dallas moved the puck efficiently and spent most of the opening twenty minutes in Philadelphia’s zone, peppering goalie Dan Vladar with pucks.
Lian Bichsel put Dallas on the board early in the first period, working in tandem with Alexander Petrovic and Justin Hryckowian, and scored his first goal of the season. Earlier Saturday morning, Gulutzan said he thought Thursday’s game against Montreal was the best he had seen the young defenseman play. Bichsel, who stands at 6’7″, has been aggressive on the ice this season, aligning with Gulutzan’s vision for the team to play a more physical game.
Bichsel also played more minutes than usual, with defenseman Thomas Harley out with a lower body injury. He is week-to-week going forward.
“I thought he had a monster game against Montreal, and so it comes at the right time that you got a young player who’s starting to get his stride and feel confident out there, because we’re going to need him,” Gulutzan said.
Jason Robertson, who had two goals in the 7-0 blowout against the Canadiens, added some more ink to his stat sheet Saturday night. Robertson put up Dallas’ first hat trick of the season with a power play goal in the third period after an assist from Roope Hintz and Mikko Rantanen. Fans’ hats went flying onto the ice, and all thoughts of a scoring drought seemed quieted.
“Maybe I’m shooting the puck a little bit more and being a little bit more assertive on net,” Robertson said. “But I’ve been getting those chances all season, so I’m just glad it went in. And obviously when you get one or two, confidence goes up.”
The forward had been struggling to get pucks into the net in the beginning of the season but seems to have dusted off the cobwebs. Robertson scored his first goal of the night in the middle of the second after an assist from Tyler Seguin and Roope Hintz. The second came the end of the period when Robertson fielded a pass from Hintz, turned around and ripped the puck past Vladar.
Philadelphia came fresh off a shootout win against the St. Louis Blues the night before and seemed gassed throughout the night. The team was able to avoid a shutout loss and put up a point in the middle of the third period when forward Christian Dvorak slid a puck past Jake Oettinger.
Dallas responded two minutes later. While the Flyers were making a change, Ilya Lyubushkin passed the puck to Seguin, who found space and put up his seventh goal of the season.
The win over the Flyers comes as the Stars’ fifth in a row — their longest winning streak this season. They will look to continue it Tuesday night at home against the New York Islanders at 7 p.m. CT.