Dallas defeated Nashville 3-2 in overtime, after overcoming a two-goal deficit in the first.
The Stars entered the Saturday night matchup with a depleted roster, much like Wednesday night. Mikko Rantanen, Radek Faksa and Roope Hintz are all on the bench, though for different reasons. Rantanen is out with a lower body injury and Faksa is missing with an upper body injury. Hintz is recovering from an illness, but did skate this morning in Frisco and is expected to travel with the team on the upcoming roadtrip.
While this left Dallas unfazed last game, it seemed to have a little more sting tonight. The Stars went down early in the first, but were able to rally and grab their eighth win a row — tied for the franchise record.
Dallas got to the power play early when Roman Josi went to the box for hooking Wyatt Johnston. The Stars moved the puck decently well, but were unable to connect with the net.
In a continuation of last game’s physical play, Justin Hryckowian and Zachary L’Heureux dropped gloves halfway through the first and each took a five minute penalty for fighting.
The Predators went to a power play of their own when Thomas Harley took a roughing penalty. Jake Oettinger, in his first game back since becoming an Olympic gold medalist, pulled off an impressive save even with half the players on the ice collapsing in the crease.
He was not so lucky on the next few shots. Michael Bunting shot it past a net-front Miro Heiskanen on the power play, and a few minutes later Steven Stamkos put up a goal of his own, leaving the Stars down two early.
“What I liked was we just kind of just stayed with our game that we’ve been playing,” head coach Glen Gulutzan said. “And I give them credit. They came out hard, too. That’s a good hockey team.”
The Stars got a chance to start the second period off strong after Filip Forsberg roughed Sam Steel up and got called for hooking, but again struggled to find quality chances. Dallas returned the favor when Matt Duchene got called for tripping, but also came up empty handed.
It seemed appropriate that no one other than the Stars’ leading power play goal scorer, Wyatt Johnston, could put Dallas on the board after Ryan O’Reilly got banished to the box for hooking. This is the forward’s twentieth of the season and shoots him to the top of the league’s list for power play goals.
Dallas continued to build momentum as the third period began.
Although Harley took another penalty, this time for hooking, Dallas was able to survive the two minutes thanks to an impressive save from Oettinger. The defenseman made up for it, however, when the puck he shot bounced off Juuse Saros and into the stick of Nathan Bastian, who elevated it and put it into the net. The fourth line definitely picked up some slack with some of the top players out.
“…I think it’s always maybe a little easier said than done when you’re missing such key guys like that, and you’re able to still win a hockey games. I think it shows good signs of positive signs of a good hockey team,” Bastian said. “And guys like us, maybe we can’t bring this skill, but we can make up for it in other areas.
Tied at 2-2, the teams headed into overtime. Jason Robertson elevated the puck past Saros and snagged the game-winning goal off a pass from Heiskanen.
The Stars will look to continue their win streak as they head to Vancouver Monday night to take on teh Canucks at 9 p.m. CT.