CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Jason Robertson, Evgenii Dadonov, and Mason Marchment scored in Dallas’ three-goal second period and the Stars held on to beat the Calgary Flames 4-3 on Wednesday night.
Jamie Benn had a goal and an assist, and Roope Hintz had two assists as Dallas won its second straight and improved to 6-1-1 this season. Jake Oettinger had a season-high 43 saves — including 21 in the third period — to improve to 5-0-1.
“I feel pretty good,” Oettinger said. “The team’s played well in front of me. Just have to do my job, make a few big saves every night.”
Stars coach Peter DeBoer was all praises for his goalie.
“He’s a rock for us,” he said. “You take it for granted. You get used to it when you have a guy like that. He’s elite. He’s been our best player on almost every night he’s played.”
MacKenzie Weegar had a goal and an assist, and Connor Zary and Andrew Mangiapane also scored for the Flames, who have lost six straight — all in regulation — and eight of nine. Calgary’s streak without a point is its longest since a seven-game stretch March 16-29, 2018.
“We had a lull in the second period which cost us the night,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said. “The third period was more of our team showing a little bit of swagger. It’s not easy when you’re going through these stretches of games, but the only way to get out of it is together and I thought in the third period, we did a much better job of that.”
Jacob Markstrom finished with 26 saves to fall to 0-6-1 in his last seven starts.
“If we continue to play the way we did in that third period, this is a group that’s capable of winning a few in a row,” said Flames center Nazem Kadri. “So, we’ve just got to build off it.”
Mangaipane got a pass from Weegar in the slot and fired a shot past Oettinger at 1:57 of the second to give the Flames a 2-1 lead.
Robertson tied it as he got a pass from Hintz in the right circle and fired it past Markstrom at 4:35 while sending Weegar’s stick flying.
Dadonov put the Stars ahead just past the midpoint of the period as he got a pas from Nils Ludqvist, skated into the right circle and whipped a shot past Markstrom.
Marchment capped the scoring in the middle period as he took a pass from Matt Duchene, skated in front of Markstrom and beat the goalie to make it 4-2 with 12 seconds remaining.
Weegar’s power=play goal pulled the Flames within one at 2:20 of the third.
Zary, making his NHL debut, got the Flames on the scoreboard first as he crashed the net from the left side and knocked in the loose rebound of Chris Tanev’s shot 5:28 into the game.
“I thought Connor was excellent tonight. He played with confidence. He played with courage and he was one of our better forwards,” Huska said. “When he was on the ice, there was impact. When he was on the ice, he skated, he wanted the puck and he made plays when he had it, and he didn’t do it in a risky or unreliable way.”
Dallas tied it 1-1 on a short-handed goal with 54 seconds remaining in the opening period. With Markstrom out of his net to play the puck along the end boards, the puck didn’t make it out of the trapezoid and Hintz got the puck to set up Benn in front.
UP NEXT
Stars: At Edmonton on Thursday night in the middle game of a three-game trip to western Canada.
Flames: At Seattle on Saturday night.
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