Stars, Robertson bury Ducks
The Arcadia native records his third career hat trick
DALLAS >> It was Jason Robertson Night for the Dallas Stars and the Ducks were reduced to bystanders at American Airlines Center.
The Arcadia native recorded his third career hat trick — scoring once in each period — to lead the Stars to a 5-0 victory over the Ducks on Thursday night. Robertson extended his points streak to 17 games. Defenseman Miro Heiskanen added three assists.
“To a man, we should all be embarrassed with the effort,” said Ducks forward Derek Grant. “We left (goaltender) Stolie (Anthony Stolarz) out to dry after he did a lot of good things for us.”
Strong but accurate words. The Ducks were down a goal after the first period. Robertson had won a puck battle with Isac Lundestrom and knocked it in off Duck defenseman Urho Vaakanainen's foot past Stolarz at 4:13. But the nature of
STARS 5, DUCKS 0
Up next: take that and use it for fuel.”
Said Ducks coach Dallas Eakins: “As soon as it went to 2-0, for some reason we wanted to change our game plan instead of settling in. We just need to play the same way all night, 60 minutes.”
Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger made 31 saves to record his second shutout of the season and the fourth of his career. He is 4-0-0 in his career against the Ducks. The Ducks have lost 10 of their last 12 games overall and are 2-10-2 on the road this season.
Another point of comparison: After 24 games, the Ducks (6-16-2) are behind the pace of their NHL expansion season. In 1993-94, they were 8-14-2 after 24 games. They lost their 24th game that season — to the Sharks — which stopped a fourgame winning streak. Back to the present ... The Stars, who have the league's third-best power play, went 2 for 4 with the man advantage. Dallas scored once in the first period, added two in the second, and two more in the third.
“A lot of the stuff they're getting is off us playing slow,” Grant said. “Or making bad reads and giving them opportunities and that's where we get in trouble and that's where we start receiving the game.
“We've talked about it. To a man, we each have to step up and commit to the way we want to play. And that's when we're going to have success.”
Robertson completed the hat trick, on the power play, at 1:23 of the third period, beating Stolarz low blocker side with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle. It was his 22nd goal of the season, which leads the NHL.
“It looks like everything right now he's putting at the net is going in,” Grant said. “Obviously we knew who he was coming into this game and we didn't do a good enough job stopping him.”
Said Ducks defenseman Simon Benoit: “You have to learn from it and you have to put it behind you. We have two other games on the road right now and we just have to focus on them. That's it. There's no point of just dwelling on it.”
The Ducks played the third period one forward short after Lundestrom suffered an upperbody injury in the second period and did not return. He played 6:32 and only three shifts in the second period. And the concern is that he could be out for some time.
Ducks at Wild, Saturday, 11a.m., BSSC