‘Right To My Wheelhouse’: Dallas Stars Beat Winnipeg Jets 3-2 In Overtime As Roope Hintz Scores Twice

DALLAS — Roope Hintz tied the game with 2:00 left in regulation Thursday night, then ended it on a breakaway 3:47 into overtime. The Dallas Stars beat the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 at American Airlines Center in front of 18,532, and they have won four straight to move to 6-3-1.

Hintz beat Stuart Skinner through the five-hole with a snap shot for his fifth goal of the season. Miro Heiskanen and Jason Robertson had the assists.

It was the third time in four games that Dallas played past regulation. Winnipeg had the first real chance of the extra period, a 3-on-2 rush the other way.

“Obviously they had a 3-on-2, and I was so late, I couldn’t get there,” Hintz said. “I was trying to stay back because I saw [Robertson] had a huge block there. Then Miro made a great play to me, and I got a breakaway.”

Dallas trailed 2-1 with Jake Oettinger pulled for an extra attacker when Hintz tied it. Mikko Rantanen sent the pass from behind the Winnipeg net. Hintz took it in the low slot and beat Skinner on the blocker side.

Two nights earlier, Rantanen scored all three Dallas goals in a 3-2 overtime win over the Boston Bruins. On Thursday, he assisted on the first two.

“When I saw [Rantanen] had the puck behind the net, he delivered right to my wheelhouse,” Hintz explained. “It was pretty easy to put it in.”

Rantanen leads the Stars with 13 points on 5 goals and 8 assists. Dallas spent all but the last two minutes of the third period down a goal after Winnipeg scored twice in the second.

“I tell the guys lots that we’re going to play the same way until we yank the goalie, and then all bets are off,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “You can see our top guys made a nice play.”

Wyatt Johnston Scores First Goal As Jason Robertson Reaches 500 Points

Wyatt Johnston opened the scoring 1:17 into the second period, with Winnipeg on a delayed penalty and Dallas skating an extra attacker. Robertson passed to Rantanen at the top of the left circle. Rantanen moved it across to Johnston, who snapped it in from the opposite side.

It was Johnston’s first goal of the season in his eighth game. He scored 45 last season. He also assisted on Hintz’s tying goal.

Robertson’s assist on the opener was the 500th point of his NHL career. His second assist, on the overtime winner, put him at 501 points on 216 goals and 285 assists in 466 games.

He is the seventh-fastest U.S.-born player to reach 500 points. In franchise history, Neal Broten (461 games) and Dino Ciccarelli (465) got there faster, both during the club’s years in Minnesota.

Last season, Robertson also scored 45 goals. Through 10 games this season, the two have combined for four.

“Last game is a great example,” Robertson said. “We’re getting opportunities and we’re just one shot, one pass away from really opening it up.”

Dallas trailed in the third period against Boston on Tuesday and again on Thursday. Both games went to overtime.

“They haven’t been coming that easy, but I think we’ve done a great job the last two games just sticking with it,” Johnston said. “Especially in those third periods, we have been really good down a goal. We are just sticking with it. We are hard to play when we are playing our game and sticking to it as much as we can. It was great to get it done tonight.”

Winnipeg answered with two goals 1:48 apart in the middle period. Moments after Oettinger stopped Brayden Yager on a breakaway, Gabriel Vilardi tied it at 10:50. Dylan Samberg put a shot on net from the point, and Vilardi dug the loose puck off Oettinger’s right pad and into the net.

“I just saw it on top of his pad, so I was just hoping the ref wouldn’t blow [the whistle], and he didn’t,” Vilardi said. “So I was able to get it.”

At 12:38, Neal Pionk intercepted a pass from Nils Lundkvist in the Dallas zone. Pionk fed Kyle Connor in the right circle, and Connor sent a one-timer into the top corner for a 2-1 Winnipeg lead. Connor has 9 goals in 10 games.

Dallas outshot Winnipeg 12-6 in a scoreless first period. The Stars finished with a 38-19 advantage in shots.

“Good hockey game, but our guys played pretty hard,” Gulutzan explained. “We were pretty good all night. Just got a little sloppy in the second.”

Stuart Skinner Makes 35 Saves For Winnipeg Jets

Skinner finished with 35 saves and a .921 save percentage. In the final minute of the second period, Hintz got his stick on a puck at the side of the net, and Skinner reached back with his glove to smother it before it rolled across the goal line.

“That’s what we’ve talked about here the last few days,” Gulutzan said. “When [Skinner] is having a game like he is, how do you kind of make sure the group isn’t getting frustrated? You’re getting a lot of chances, and that’s what we did talk about.”

Dallas won 40 of 65 faceoffs. The Stars went 0-for-2 on the power play, and the Jets went 0-for-4.

“We were the better team today,” Hintz said. “We had a lot of chances, but we just didn’t score on their goalie. We just talked in the room to keep going like this and eventually get the chance to put the puck in the net. We did that today and it was good work.”

Winnipeg lost 2-1 at St. Louis on Tuesday. The Jets are 4-3-3 and have lost four straight (0-2-2), all by one goal.

“He was outstanding,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said of Skinner. “I thought he did a fantastic job … we gave up two 5-on-6 goals and an overtime goal. We did a lot of better things than the St. Louis game, just still some things we got to work on.”

Skinner has started seven of Winnipeg’s 10 games. He is 3-1-3 with a 2.67 goals-against average.

“It’s tough to lose that point,” Skinner said. “Those were big points. It’s tough to lose that way, especially like, we felt we had it in the bag going into the 6-on-5, and then they obviously make a couple sweet plays and make us pay. But that’s a good team over there. I thought we battled.”

Dallas forward Radek Faksa left in the third period with an unspecified injury. Gulutzan said the team is hopeful Faksa will be all right and will update his status Saturday, after an off day Friday. Winnipeg forward Nino Niederreiter left with 6:51 remaining in the third, bleeding after he took a stick to the face from teammate Tyrel Bauer.

At the other end, Oettinger made 17 saves for a .895 save percentage. He has allowed two goals or fewer in seven of his eight starts. His 1.23 goals-against average leads the NHL. No goaltender has more than his 3 shutouts. Dallas has allowed 16 goals, the fewest in the league.

“That’s the base, and now we just have to add to it,” Gulutzan said.

The Stars have scored 25 goals, which ranks 26th of 32 teams. Their power play has converted 4 of 25 chances, or 16%.

“It’s going to come,” Robertson explained. “I think we’re going to find it.”

David Perron, who signed a one-year, $850,000 contract Oct. 16, has not played for Dallas. Before the game, Gulutzan said he wants to give the forward more time before putting him in the lineup.

Dallas hosts the New York Islanders at 5 p.m. CT Sunday in the third game of a six-game homestand. Winnipeg hosts the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday in the Heritage Classic, an outdoor game. The Stars and Jets meet again Nov. 12 at American Airlines Center.