Hitchcock’s hunch works as Stars down Oilers
DALLAS — Stars coach Ken Hitchcock played a hunch early on Saturday and it paid off quickly.
Alexander Radulov, Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin — put together on the same line in the early going — scored first-period goals within 61⁄2 minutes, leading Dallas past the Edmonton Oilers 5-1. Seguin also had two assists. John Klingberg had a goal and two assists, and Mattias Janmark had a goal and an assist for Dallas.
The Stars have won six of their past eight games.
Radulov assisted on the other first-period goals, giving him two goals and four assists in Dallas’ past two games. He had three goals and five assists in the Stars’ three games against Edmonton this season.
Radulov has 16 goals in 43 games after scoring 18 in 76 games last season for the Montreal Canadiens. He came to Dallas as a free agent last summer. “Sometimes it’s happening, sometimes it’s going well, and we worked hard and got rewarded,” Radulov said.
Hitchcock opened the game with Benn and Seguin playing with Brett Ritchie for the second consecutive game, but quickly put Radulov back with the team’s top two scorers, where he has played previously this season.
“I felt the way the rotations of the line were going that it was a better matchup if I put Rads there,” said Hitchcock. “He had a bead in on the game, and I had to get him out there as much as I could early and often.”
“We didn’t have an answer for that line,” Oilers coach Todd McLelland said. “They scored just about every way they could except for on the power play. They created a lot of havoc for us in our end on a lot of lateral plays.”
“He’s such a dynamic player,” Benn said of Radulov.
Leon Draisaitl’s power-play goal for the Oilers at 2:04 of the third period denied Ben Bishop his fifth shutout of the season.