Colin Blackwell scored the winner and Jason Robertson extended his scoring streak to five games as the Dallas Stars kicked off a four-game Western road trip with a 4-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
Robertson now has nine goals in that five-game span and he stretched his point streak against the Canucks to seven games.
Mavrik Bourque and Mikko Rantanen scored and goaltender Jake Oettinger made 34 saves for the Stars, who have won six of their last seven contests.
Ottinger, who is in the running to be Team USA’s goalie for the upcoming Winter Games, had to weather five power plays by Vancouver, giving up just one goal short-handed. Dallas had not allowed a power-play goal against in five consecutive games, going a perfect 11-for-11 on the penalty kill in that span.
Elias Pettersson and Linus Karlsson scored and Kevin Lankinen made 20 saves for Vancouver.
Bourque opened the scoring for Dallas in the first minute after Lankinen slid too far out of his crease and mishandled a puck at the side of the net. The puck went to Justin Hryckowian behind the net and he fed it out front to Bourque who had an open net.
Karlsson drove down the left wing and fired a shot between Ottinger’s blocker and the near post at 3:06 to tie it at 1-1.
Robertson had plenty of chances but his lone goal came at 7:44 of the first. He stole the puck from Kiefer Sherwood and turned and fired it over the right shoulder of Lankinen.
Pettersson tied it at 2-2 on the power play at 14:25 of the first by carrying the puck out of the corner then jamming in his own rebound during a goal-mouth scramble.
After a high-scoring first period the teams failed to score in the second as both goaltenders took turns making exceptional saves.
Blackwell gave the Stars a 3-2 lead halfway through the third period by taking a pass from Radek Faksa then outskating Quinn Hughes before shooting the puck over the glove hand of Lankinen at 10:47.
Stars forward Rantanen scored on a spinning backhand into the top corner to seal the victory with 91 seconds left in the game.
