Wyatt Johnston scored the shootout winner for the Dallas Stars in a 4-3 victory over the host Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Esa Lindell and Justin Hryckowian finished with a goal and an assist each for the Stars (50-20-12, 112 points), who ended the regular season on a five-game winning streak. Mavrik Bourque added his 20th goal of the season.
Jake Oettinger made 21 saves for Dallas. After Josh Norris and Jack Quinn beat him on Buffalo’s first two shootout attempts, the Sabres’ Alex Tuch was wide right with his attempt, and Oettinger stopped Josh Doan’s shot.
Jason Robertson and Matt Duchene also scored for Dallas in the shootout.
Zach Benson had a goal and an assist for the Sabres (50-23-9, 109 points), who also got regulation goals from Norris and Tuch. Owen Power logged two assists.
Colten Ellis stopped 25 shots, but didn’t add a save in the shootout. The only Dallas player to fail, Mikko Rantanen, missed the target.
Buffalo will open the playoffs against the Boston Bruins, while Dallas will start the postseason against the Minnesota Wild.
Bourque, who had a hat trick Monday at Toronto, started the scoring 2:19 into the contest, then Norris evened the game with 7:12 left in the first 20 minutes.
Benson gave Buffalo its first lead with 16:28 to go in the second, scoring on a short-handed breakaway. However, Lindell got that goal back just 52 seconds later, while still with the man advantage, on a shot that banked in off Buffalo defenseman Logan Stanley’s skate.
Tuch notched the 200th goal of his career and 33rd of the season, careening the puck in off Oettinger with 8:51 to go in the second to give the Sabres the lead again. Then Hryckowian leveled the game with four minutes left in the period.
The outcome between the league’s third- and fourth-best teams by record had no impact on either’s playoff seeding. Buffalo chose to rest its top two scorers, Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin. The Stars, who have several players injured, welcomed back forward Sam Steel, who missed nine games due to a hip injury, and defenseman Nils Lundkvist, who sat out the last three because of an illness.
Wednesday’s game was also the final regular-season game for NHL linesman Steve Barton, 54. He wore the stripes for 26 seasons and officiated more than 1,650 regular-season games, 157 playoff contests and three Stanley Cup Finals. Both teams stayed on the ice afterward to congratulate Barton.
–Field Level Media
