Jake Oettinger made 17 saves for his second shutout of the season as the Western Conference-leading Dallas Stars defeated the host Seattle Kraken 3-0 Saturday night for their season-high seventh consecutive victory.
Wyatt Johnston, Joe Pavelski and Roope Hintz scored goals for the Stars (47-19-9, 103 points), who are one point behind the New York Rangers in the chase for the Presidents’ Trophy, which goes to the team with the NHL’s best regular-season record and includes home-ice advantage throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Johnston also assisted on the team’s final goal.
Goaltender Joey Daccord stopped 27 of 29 shots for the Kraken (30-30-13, 73 points), who had a two-game winning streak snapped.
Trailing 1-0 after two periods, Seattle defenseman Adam Larsson was given a five-minute major and game misconduct for elbowing Dallas’ Chris Tanev just 19 seconds into the third period.
Pavelski scored nine seconds later on a rebound off Hintz’s shot from the top of the left faceoff circle to make it 2-0.
Hintz added an empty-netter at 18:43 to clinch the victory.
The Stars broke a scoreless tie at 18:12 of the second period. Johnston won an offensive-zone faceoff against Seattle’s Jaden Schwartz and Logan Stankoven sent the puck back to Nils Lundkvist at the right point.
Lundkvist’s one-timer was redirected by Johnston from the top of the faceoff circle and skidded under Daccord’s pads as the goalie was dropping to the ice.
The Stars had a pair of quality chances earlier in the second.
About 90 seconds in, Jason Robertson collected a rebound at the top of the crease and tried to lift a backhander behind Daccord but Kraken forward Oliver Bjorkstrand slid across the goal line on one knee and made a skate save at the right post.
Hintz had a short-handed breakaway with about 6 1/2 minutes left in the period, but Daccord was able to squeeze the shot between his leg pads.
Seattle defenseman Vince Dunn (upper-body injury) was a full participant at the morning skate but missed his 12th consecutive game. –Field Level Media
