Wyatt Johnston had a goal and an assist, Jake Oettinger stopped 17 shots for his second shutout of the season, and the Dallas Stars defeated the Seattle Kraken 3-0 on Saturday night for their seventh consecutive win.
Joe Pavelski and Roope Hintz also scored, helping the Stars maintain their lead in the Central Division and Western Conference standings, three points ahead of Colorado. Having clinched their third straight playoff berth with a win over Vancouver two nights earlier, Dallas now trails the New York Rangers by just one point in the President’s Trophy race.
“You want to be playing well right now and winning games,” Pavelski said. “You have to string them together. You can win many games, and it feels like you make up no ground. The focus is just to keep winning — keep doing it the right way and keep building our game toward the playoffs and make sure we’re ready.”
Oettinger recorded his ninth career shutout, improving his season record to 30-13-4.
“He’s been awesome,” Johnston said. “It gives you a lot of confidence when he’s playing like that. He’s been huge all year.”
Joey Daccord made 27 saves for the Kraken, who had won two straight after suffering eight consecutive losses. Seattle will end the regular season as the only NHL team winless at home on Saturdays.
“In terms of effort, the effort was definitely there,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “Are they a good opponent? Absolutely. They’re fighting for the President’s Trophy for a reason. It’s still disappointing to walk away with a loss. Not disappointed in the effort, but we’re here to win.”
Johnston broke the scoreless tie with 1:48 remaining in the second period.
“We stayed patient, and we found a goal,” Pavelski said. “It came. We didn’t cheat for it. Our game seemed to get slightly better when we found that one.”
Adam Larsson received a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct early in the third period. Pavelski extended the lead with a power-play goal 26 seconds into the third. Seattle had not allowed a power-play goal in their last four games, successfully killing eight penalties during that span.
“We kept it close,” Seattle’s Oliver Bjorkstrand said. “It’s just a matter of us pushing the tempo and trying to create chances. They’re a hard team to play against. They play well defensively. I think maybe we just need to get more shots through and a little bit more traffic.”
Hintz sealed the win with an empty-net goal with 1:17 left.
“We had good legs,” Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. “We had good energy. It was a tough 60 minutes. They made it tough for us, but we stuck with it.”
UP NEXT
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Stars: Host Edmonton on Wednesday.
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Kraken: Visit San Jose on Monday.
