The Dallas Stars sure are picking up some frequent-flier miles on their current trip.
After a 10-4 victory on Thursday in Buffalo, the Stars are headed to Seattle for a rare two-game series starting Saturday night. The teams will also play there on Monday before Dallas heads off to Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary.
“You always want to win the first one,” said Stars captain Jamie Benn, who — like teammate Mason Marchment — had a goal and two assists Thursday. “And we’ve got, obviously, a big road trip here. Some good teams ahead of us. We’re going to need guys to step up now that we might have lost one guy. So it’s going to be a big trip for us and it’s a good start.”
Radek Faksa scored twice and Jason Robertson had three assists for the Stars, who have won five of their past seven games. Jake Oettinger made 25 saves.
“We had all those chances, and we were playing well defensively,” Faksa said. “We got a really good four lines and that’s really important going forward, especially for playoffs.”
Dallas forward Tyler Seguin didn’t return after leaving the game midway through the first period with an apparent lower-body injury. He got tangled up with Buffalo’s Jordan Greenway.
Stars coach Peter DeBoer said Seguin was to be re-evaluated but that he could probably be out “for a few more games on this trip.”
The Sabres were within 5-3 early in the third period before the Stars pulled away.
“We’ve got a lot of belief, a lot of trust in each other,” Benn said. “Guys are stepping up their game at the right time, and we’re just going to try and continue to keep that going.”
The Kraken had a five-game winning streak snapped with a 5-4 loss to visiting Ottawa on Thursday night.
Seattle rallied from an early three-goal deficit to take a 4-3 lead, but the Senators scored twice in the final 16 minutes.
“You don’t get to start over. Obviously the start put us in a big hole,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “We’re able to dig out, so that’s a real positive. But we didn’t start on time.
“Disappointing. We didn’t get out of our end well enough in the third period, and it ended up costing us.”
Jared McCann scored twice and defenseman Vince Dunn had a goal and an assist for the Kraken.
“We showed a lot of character and showed a lot of fight, but it’s a tough one to swallow when you can’t pull (that) one out,” McCann said.
Hakstol called a timeout after Ottawa took a 3-0 lead just 8:27 into the game.
The move worked — for a while.
“We gave them every opportunity that they had,” Dunn said. “We know they’re a very desperate team right now. They’re right in the playoff race. They gave it the best first 10 minutes they had.
“We need to be prepared for that. We need to do a better job in our building.”
–Field Level Media
