Consecutive wins, you say? Behind Jake Oettinger’s 41 saves, the Stars finally defeated the Hurricanes - The Dallas Morning News

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In the current Stars season, even minor accomplishments feel like major ones.

Thanks to a 3-2 win Saturday night at Carolina, the Stars won consecutive games for the first time in nine weeks. Dallas went 29 games between starting the season 4-0-0 and beating Nashville on Thursday and Carolina on Saturday.

The win was the first over the Hurricanes this season and continues a pivotal road trip that could decide the Stars’ fate ahead of the April 12 trade deadline. Dallas is 2-0-1 on the trip, with one game left in Carolina and two in Chicago.

Tanner Kero scored the game-winning goal 2:52 into the third period, burying a slick feed from behind the net by Jason Robertson. Andrew Cogliano and Jamie Benn also scored for the Stars. By tipping Mark Pysyk’s point shot, Cogliano scored his fourth goal of the season. Benn’s deft rebound goal was his second power-play goal in as many games.

“We needed to get on a bit of a run, so it’s nice to get that away,” coach Rick Bowness said. “I know it’s a topic of conversation about not having the back-to-back wins. We needed to get that done tonight. We needed to find a way to win that game so we can move past that, and we did.”

The Stars are five points behind Nashville for fourth place — the final playoff spot — in the Central Division with four games in hand.

It was a big enough feat beating the team that began Saturday leading the NHL in points percentage, a team that defeated the Stars four times already this season. But the list of missing Stars makes the two points more impactful.

Anton Khudobin was supposed to start Saturday night’s game, but he was placed on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list. Khudobin said before the season that he had COVID-19 in Russia in the offseason, so Bowness hopes that Khudobin suffered from a false positive test result.

Either way, Khudobin was unable to start, paving the way for Jake Oettinger, who made 41 saves.

“There was no surprise, it was just almost like ‘Oh OK, what are you waiting for?’” Bowness said of telling Oettinger he would start Saturday. “It’s his maturity. It shows on the ice, but really, he’s mature beyond his years. When you’re that confident in your abilities, you want to play.”

Roope Hintz came out of the lineup after playing the previous three games through a nagging lower-body injury. Hintz has not played both ends of a back-to-back in more than two months, meaning he could be available for Sunday’s rematch in Raleigh.

Alexander Radulov (lower body), Tyler Seguin (hip surgery) and Ben Bishop (knee surgery) were all unavailable but skating in Frisco. Bowness said Joel Kiviranta was still in a walking boot. Kiviranta has not played since March 21 because of a lower-body injury and is on injured reserve. Stephen Johns hasn’t played all season.

A minor accomplishment like completing a game unscathed would be cause for celebration in Dallas.

The Stars lost Joel Hanley during Thursday’s victory over the Predators, and he was again out Saturday night against the Hurricanes. His absence allowed Pysyk back in the lineup, and he produced an assist.

The Stars lost Jason Dickinson during Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury, and he didn’t play after the first period. Bowness did not have an update on Dickinson after the game.

The final damage count for the Stars? They were missing their top two centers, top two goalies, a pair of top-six wingers, a versatile center and a pair of depth defensemen.

“For us to come in here injured and beaten up and show that we can beat anyone no matter who’s in our lineup is a testament to how deep we are and how good of a team we have,” Oettinger said. “It’s been a great start to this road trip, and [we’re] just going to continue this into [Sunday].”

Without those players, it was Kero who provided the heroics.

Kero is not counted on to be a scorer. He hadn’t played in the NHL in three years before this season. He had one goal with the Stars entering Saturday night. But he potted the game-winning goal in a game that moved the Stars closer to playoff contention, a minor step toward a major target.

“It seems like when we have a good game, we have a setback the next game,” Kero said. “We wanted to make sure we were keeping it going and try to string a couple together. We need to start climbing back in this race. Every point is important, so when you can get two in a row like that, that’s big.”

Dellandrea dishing it out: On Saturday morning, Bowness had a little chat with rookie forward Ty Dellandrea, and the message was simple: “You don’t have to hit everything that moves out there.”

“He brings so much energy, he just wants to get a piece of everyone,” Bowness said. “But he’s such a competitive guy, and he really lifts the spirit up on the ice, the enthusiasm.”

Dellandrea was in the lineup for his third straight game, playing right wing on the fourth line. On Thursday night in Nashville, Dellandrea got into his first NHL fight when he dropped the gloves with Predators forward Luke Kunin.

“I like to get under people’s skin,” Dellandrea said. “It brings the intensity up in my game and gets me dialed in, as well as the team. I think it’s always been in my game a little bit, but playing within the game and playing hard.”

Dellandrea entered Saturday with 35 hits in 21 games.

“He’s getting chances, he’s excellent on the forecheck, he’s banging bodies, he’s going to the net,” Bowness said. “He’s hard to play against. That scrap at the end of [Thursday’s] game, that’s typical him. He seemed to enjoy it.”

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