It took three tries, but the Dallas Stars are in the win column for the first time this season, beating the Macklin Celebrini-less San Jose Sharks 5-0 on Monday night at American Airlines Center.
Jake Oettinger was perfect between the pipes, stopping all 13 shots he faced for his 17th career National Hockey League shutout.
“Anytime you get a shutout in the NHL it’s fun,” Oettinger told reporters afterwards, per NHL.com's Robert Tiffin. “Now guys are so skilled and so smart, turning down good looks to try to make a great look, so that’s what you’re going to have to get used to as a goalie now in this league. I feel like the volume isn’t going to be as high, it’s going to be more quality over quantity.”
Dallas got a goal from defenseman Miro Heiskanen late in the first period and never looked back, putting four more past San Jose netminder Yaroslav Askarov.
Jamie Benn, Mikko Rantanen, Jason Robertson and Joel Kiviranta also scored for the 1-2-0 Stars.
“We established more zone time and played more direct, forward, and cleaned up our blue lines,” head coach Glen Gulutzan said, per Tiffin. “It’s a really simple recipe, and it’s good that they got rewarded for it.
Article Continues Below“It’s just a simple recipe. It’s the best league in the world, but it’s also the simplest league in the world. We’re playing a young team that’s on the rise, and one way to slow them down is to just grind and play in that zone and force them to defend. That slows them down, and I thought our guys did a good job of that tonight.”
The Sharks struggled to generate offense without Celebrini, who was a late scratch with a lower-body injury. The young superstar had amassed five assists through his first two games for 2-1-0 San Jose.
Now with a win under their belt, the Stars will look to build momentum during a brief two-game road trip that takes them to Buffalo on Thursday and Pittsburgh on Saturday.
Dallas returns home next Tuesday night to welcome the archrival Colorado Avalanche to American Airlines Center.