The Dallas Stars look to continue their strong play away from home Thursday when they open a season-high six-game road trip against the Buffalo Sabres.
The Stars have recorded at least a point in seven of their last eight games (5-1-2) away from Dallas and are 17-8-5 on the road this season.
“It’s nice,” forward Tyler Seguin said. “We’ve been home for a while and it’s time to get back on the grind, face adversity, and face those long flights together. Sometimes, you find that consistency when you get on the road and play that playoff-type game.”
The Stars saw their five-game point streak (4-0-1) come to a halt in a crushing fashion. They yielded the go-ahead goal with 6.2 seconds remaining in the third period of a 5-4 setback to the Calgary Flames on Monday.
“Tough way to lose to give that up,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “It was probably a symptom of our whole game tonight. Just awareness and execution were off a little bit.”
Jason Robertson has been far from “off” this season. He has recorded seven points (three goals, four assists) during a four-game point streak that has boosted his season total to a career-high 80 points, one more than he had last season.
Robertson, who leads the team in goals (38), assists (42) and points, scored a goal in Dallas’ 3-2 overtime loss to Buffalo on Jan. 23.
Roope Hintz, who is second in goals (30) and points (59), has nine points (seven goals, two assists) during a six-game point streak. He had an assist in the previous encounter with the Sabres.
Buffalo enters Thursday’s tilt having lost four of its last five games, including 3-2 setbacks to the Edmonton Oilers on Monday and New York Islanders on Tuesday.
Sabres captain Kyle Okposo scored his first goal since Jan. 14 after redirecting of a shot from rookie defenseman Owen Power at 4:59 of the third period on Tuesday.
“We knew how big of a game it was,” Okposo said. “I just think fatigue set in a little bit in the second (period), just kind of mental fatigue, and we just started to make some mistakes. But we battled hard. We had chances to win the game and tie the game back up and capitalize.”
As for Power, he scored his first goal of the season just 56 seconds into the overtime in the first meeting with the Stars.
Tage Thompson, who had two assists in that game, leads Buffalo in goals (42) and points (83).
The Sabres will look to get back on track versus Jake Oettinger, who is 1-0-1 with a 2.49 goals-against average and .923 save percentage in two career encounters with Buffalo. Oettinger made 22 saves in the teams’ previous meeting Jan. 23.
Craig Anderson turned aside 29 shots in that game to improve to 10-4-0 with a 2.98 GAA and .915 save percentage in his career versus Dallas.
–Field Level Media
