After a brief period to mull over self-inflicted wounds in their last outing, the Dallas Stars begin a four-game road trip through the West against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday hoping to restart a win streak.
The Stars had a five-game winning streak snapped in dramatic style during Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to the New York Islanders. They took a major penalty and had a goal overturned on video review all in the last minute of the contest.
Wyatt Johnston appeared to have tied the game with 0.1 seconds left but teammate Jason Robertson collided with an Islanders defenseman before bumping into netminder David Rittich, which nullified the goal and allowed the Islanders to win.
That came less than 30 seconds after leading scorer Mikko Rantanen was slapped with a five-minute boarding penalty and a game misconduct for a dangerous check from behind on Alexander Romanov that sent the New York defenseman crashing face first into the end boards.
“I don’t think I’ve been in a scenario like that before. I mean, 25 seconds left, five-minute major. It was a good push, we got a chance. It didn’t go in, legally,” said Robertson, who scored both of the Stars’ goals.
The Stars might argue Robertson was pushed into the goalie, but there is no doubt that the former 100-point scorer has found his scoring touch after another mediocre start to the season.
Dallas is loaded with skill at every position and if they are going to make another deep run into the playoffs this year, they are going to need the 26-year-old American at the top of his game.
Robertson has eight goals and four assists on a five-game point streak, including three straight multi-goal games.
“Just give him the puck. He’s shooting everything and a lot’s going in,” Stars forward Tyler Seguin said. “You kind of expected it to come and happy to see it.”
Stars captain Jamie Benn made his season debut in Tuesday’s game against the Islanders. The 17-year veteran missed time with a collapsed lung suffered in preseason. In just under 10 minutes of ice time, he had one shot on goal.
Speaking of multi-point games, few players are filling the scoresheet like Robertson and Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes. Both Hughes and Robertson were named stars of the week on Monday.
Hughes is also on a torrid streak with 10 assists in his last three games. He had three assists in Monday’s 8-5 loss to the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. His four assists on Sunday and three on Nov. 11 to give him 19 on the season.
He joined Cale Makar, Roman Josi, Ray Bourque and Paul Coffey as the only defensemen in NHL history with three or more assists in three straight games.
After the Canucks took a 2-0 lead, the Panthers rallied with five goals, but Vancouver fought back and scored three straight. Florida didn’t give up, scoring three more in the third period to secure the come-from-behind victory.
“We took too deep of a breath when we tied up the game in the third period. They are a team that isn’t going to quit,” Canucks forward Evander Kane said.
The Canucks are struggling on defense. Their penalty kill is last in the league (67.1%) and they had given up more goals per game (3.67) than any other team in the Pacific Division heading into Wednesday night.
“We were up 2-0 and we let them back in,” Canucks coach Adam Foote said. “They have a potent offense, and you can’t let them back in. We were right there but made mistakes at the wrong time.”
