A Wall in Newark: Oettinger’s Shuts Out Devils 3-0

 

The emotional high of a franchise milestone collided with a cold reality tonight as the Dallas Stars blanked the New Jersey Devils 3-0 at the Prudential Center. The evening was anchored by a heartfelt ceremony celebrating veteran defenseman Brenden Dillon as he laced up for his 1,000th career NHL game, which was on Monday, providing an unforgettable moment for the home crowd.

However, the visiting Stars were all business. Led by a spectacular performance from Jake Oettinger, who turned aside all 30 shots to secure the shutout, Dallas successfully rebounded from having their own four-game win streak snapped earlier in the week. The Stars' offense was efficient and star-driven, getting goals from Miro Heiskanen, Jason Robertson, and Mikko Rantanen. For the short-handed Devils, who are navigating play without their star Jack Hughes, the loss sadly extended their current skid to three games, but the resilience shown in forcing Oettinger into numerous spectacular saves suggests they continue to battle hard despite the result.

Dallas Stars Lineup:

Benn - Johnston - Rantanen

Robertson - Hintz - Bourque

Back - Hryckowian - Bastian

Steel - Faksa - Blackwell

Lindell - Heiskanen

Kolyachonok - Lybushkin

Capobianco - Petrovic

Oettinger

DeSmith

New Jersey Devils Lineup:

Meier - Hischier - Bratt

Palat - Mercer - Gritsyuk

Cotter - Glass - Brown

Lammikko - Glendening - Noesen

Siegenthaler - Hamilton

Dillon - Hughes

Cholowski - Nemec

Markstrom

Allen

In a scoreless opening frame, Jake Oettinger registered eight stops. His finest work came with a spectacular, one-second double-save: first blocking Juho Lammikko's backhand shot from the slot with 1:31 left in the period, then smothering Luke Glendening's ensuing rebound at the right post.

Miro Heiskanen scored the first goal of the game, putting the Stars ahead 1-0 when he took a pass from Roope Hintz, and from the middle of the right face-off circle, he put the puck past Jacob Markstrom on a snap shot for his first goal in 15 games with 8:26 on the clock in the second period. At 2:24, Jason Robertson made it 2-0 with his 17th goal of the season when he passed to Esa Lindell, who passed it right back to Robertson as he got closer to the net, who scored from the bottom of the left circle when he fired a wrister. Oettinger denied Dawson Mercer with 1:10 left in the middle frame on a short-handed breakaway.

Mikko Rantanen struck at 12:55 of the third to push it to 3-0 for his 12th goal of the season. He reached behind Markstrom, poking the puck in, redirecting a waist-high shot from the point by Lindell between Markstrom's legs.

Notes:

- This was Jake Oettinger's second shutout of the season, as well as the 14th of his career. In four tries (1-2-1), this was his first win against the Devils. New Jersey had been the only team, other than Dallas, that he hadn't defeated.

- Jacob Markstrom made a total of 25 saves for New Jersey.

- Both Nico Hischier (12 points; six goals, six assists) and Timo Meier (eight points; five goals, three assists) had their six-game point streaks end.

- Miro Heiskanen picked up both a goal and an assist, and both Jamie Benn and Esa Lindell collected a pair of assists.

- Roope Hintz recorded an assist tonight, which gave him his 400th NHL career point, making him the third-fastest player in Stars history to reach 400 career points (491 games). He's behind both Jason Robertson (378 games) and Jamie Benn (457 games). Hintz has 183 and 217 assists.

- The Devils are 16-10-1, and have lost three in a row and six of their past nine.

- The Stars are 18-5-5, and are 8-0-4 in their past 12 away from home, the longest road point streak in team history. ...Dallas is 6-0-0 at Prudential Center since the start of the 2019-20 season. ...The Stars have allowed three or fewer goals in 13 straight games, 10-1-2.

- This was the first game of the season where the Stars played without Tyler Seguin. After sustaining an ACL injury at 1:44 of the opening period of a 3-2 overtime loss at the New York Rangers on Tuesday, December 2nd, Seguin is likely out for the rest of the season.

- This is the first time Nathan Bastian faced his former team since signing a one-year, $775,000 contract with the Dallas Stars on August 9th. He had two hits in 10:50 of ice time.