Roope Hintz had two goals and an assist, and Jason Robertson added a goal and two assists to lead the host Dallas Stars to a 5-1 victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday night.
Miro Heiskanen added a goal and an assist, and Mason Marchment also scored for Dallas, which improved to 25-4 in its last 29 home openers. Joe Pavelski added two assists.
Jake Oettinger, who made 32 saves in a season-opening 4-1 win at Nashville on Thursday, stopped 29 of 30 shots for the Stars.
Nino Niederreiter continued his hot start with his fourth goal in four games for Nashville. Juuse Saros finished with 17 saves.
Dallas jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 4:46 mark of the first period on a shorthanded goal. Hintz had just jumped off the bench and snuck up behind Roman Josi at the left point where he poke-checked the puck away to Heiskanen, who sprung Hintz on a breakaway. Hintz then fired a wrist shot past Saros into the top left corner.
Hintz made it 2-0 early in the second period when his crossing pass from the left wing for Pavelski bounced in off the glove of defenseman Mattias Ekholm between the pads of Saros.
The Stars, who had a Pavelski goal waived off for offsides following a Nashville challenge, increased their lead to 3-0 at the 7:48 mark of the period. Heiskanen redirected Robertson's saucer pass from the right circle into the left side of the net in a 4-on-4 situation.
Nashville cut it to 3-1 near the end of the period when Niederreiter deflected Mikael Granlund's shot-pass from the top of the slot inside the left post for his fourth goal of the season.
Robertson restored the three-goal lead for Dallas early in the third period with a shot from the slot off a Hintz setup that beat Saros on his stick side.
Nashville pulled Saros for an extra attacker with Marchment fired a wrist shot from his own zone into the empty net for his third goal of the season with 1:13 left to end the scoring.
--Field Level Media
Nashville | Dallas | |
Nino Niederreiter 1 | Points | Roope Hintz 3 |
Nino Niederreiter 1 | Goals | Roope Hintz 2 |
Mikael Granlund 1 | Assists | Jason Robertson 2 |
Nino Niederreiter 1 | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | Roope Hintz 1 |
Juuse Saros .810 | Save Percentage | Jake Oettinger .967 |
Juuse Saros 17 | Saves | Jake Oettinger 29 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Nashville | 30 | 1 | 1-4 | 2-2 | 16 | 27 |
Dallas | 22 | 5 | 0-2 | 3-4 | 10 | 31 |