A five-goal outburst would usually be good news for a team that has struggled lately to put the puck in the net, but not when it allows seven.
That’s the case with the Dallas Stars, who visit the Nashville Predators in a divisional showdown Saturday afternoon.
The Stars will try to rebound from a 7-5 home loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night.
The loss snapped Dallas’ seven-game point streak (4-0-3), in which it only scored 17 goals.
“Goals haven’t been coming that easy this last little bit,” said Wyatt Johnston, who had two goals and an assist Thursday. “We need to keep working and try to play in their own (end) more often, not rely on rush chances and stuff like that. Playing in their end a little more will help a ton. I think it’s always good when you score goals, but can definitely defend a lot better. You’re not going to win many nights when you let in seven.”
Mikko Rantanen had a goal and two assists, Tyler Seguin and Roope Hintz also scored and defenseman Miro Heiskanen had four assists. Jake Oettinger made 18 saves.
“Not many positives when you lose,” Seguin said. “It’s still early, we’ve got a lot of new stuff going on. I think we’ve been searching a little bit, especially 5-on-5 offense, and knowing it’s coming. One thing we’ve been proud of is we’ve been pretty stingy defensively, so that’s the disappointment from tonight and something I’m sure we’ll talk about tomorrow.”
Hintz returned after missing five games with an undisclosed injury.
Matt Duchene (upper body) is day-to-day. He has missed 10 games.
The Predators have lost three in a row (0-1-2) and six of their last seven (1-4-2) after falling 3-1 on Thursday night to the visiting Philadelphia Flyers.
“These games have been weird where we feel like we’re right in there, but then we make some mistakes and the puck ends up in our net,” Nashville defenseman Nicolas Hague said. “It’s kind of the way it’s going right now. Those are kind of catastrophic, right? Especially when we can’t seem to put the puck in the net.”
The Predators have 16 goals during their seven-game skid.
Ryan O’Reilly scored Nashville’s only goal and Juuse Saros stopped 23 shots.
O’Reilly scored just 1:44 in for a 1-0 Predators lead but they could not sustain the momentum.
“Obviously, a chance to take full control of a game and we didn’t,” O’Reilly said. “We let them come back in, and they pushed back. Didn’t happen. I know for myself, No. 1 center, and I just turn the puck over everywhere and can’t make a six-foot pass to save my life. We’re not going to have much success if I’m playing pathetic like that. I don’t know the answer.”
He added: “The last few games, I’ve been making mistakes left and right. You can’t expect to win like that. There’s frustration everywhere. Guys are working, a lot of guys are working. You do what you can. It falls on leadership and we have to be the ones to get over it.”
Defenseman Adam Wilsby (lower body) is day-to-day after missing five games.
