The Dallas Stars will aim to record a season-high fourth straight victory on Tuesday night when they open a five-game homestand against the Arizona Coyotes.
Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston collected two goals and an assist apiece and Matt Duchene had one of each in Dallas’ 8-3 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday.
The Stars erupted for seven goals on special teams — five on the power play and two short-handed — to complete a sweep of their three-game road trip.
Robertson liked what he saw from Dallas’ man-advantage situations after the team scored just four times on the power play in its previous 13 games.
“The movement, guys getting shots through, recovering, winning draws, breakouts were clean,” Robertson said. “It’s something that we’ve had many meetings about, and it’s great we had one game and now we want to keep this thing rolling and have a top-five power play like we did last year.”
Speaking of last season, Robertson ravaged the Coyotes to the tune of eight points (three goals, five assists) — including three on the power play (one goal, two assists). Robertson’s stellar play helped the Stars win all four meetings against Arizona in 2022-23.
Jake Oettinger turned aside 67 of 71 shots in three of those contests last season. Oettinger is off to a strong start in 2023-24, posting a 7-2-1 mark with a 2.19 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage.
Oettinger’s 23-save performance on Sunday notwithstanding, Tyler Seguin was encouraged by what he saw as the club heads back to Dallas.
“It’s what every team talks about in training camp,” Seguin said. “You want to have a good start. You want to have a good road record (7-1-1) and be good on special teams. We’re going to go home and take care of business there now.”
The Coyotes took care of business on Saturday, as Michael Carcone snapped a five-game point drought by scoring two goals in the club’s 7-5 victory over the Nashville Predators.
“I like the way he skated (versus the Predators). I liked the way he moved the puck in the offensive zone. I liked the battle level,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. “(Carcone) needs to keep working on his consistency level. (Saturday) was one of his good games. Now we want the same thing in Dallas.”
Carcone’s offensive outburst propelled him into a share of the team lead in goals with Clayton Keller (six). Keller collected a goal and two assists against Nashville to boost his point streak to three games (two goals, four assists) and club-best season point total to 15.
Logan Cooley, 19, set up three goals on Saturday to lift his assist total to a team-leading 10 on the season.
“We have a proud group and good leadership,” Tourigny said. “The room, there’s a good group of guys who want to be successful together, and they’re proud to be together.”
–Field Level Media
