EDMONTON, Alberta — Roope Hintz had two goals and an assist, Scott Wedgewood made 46 saves and the Dallas Stars beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 Thursday night for their third straight win.
Joe Pavelski had a goal and two assists and Matt Duchene also scored for the Stars, who improved to 7-1-1 on the season.
Sam Gagner scored twice in his return to the lineup and Evander Kane also had a goal struggling Oilers, who have lost five of their last six and dropped to 2-6-1. Stuart Skinner had 23 saves.
Edmonton sent 25 shots at Wedgewood in the third period. and scored twice but could not tie it.
“We know they’ve got a high-powered offense and they’re going to keep coming,” Wedgewood said. “No matter what kind of lead you have, it’s not really safe in this league, let alone against these guys. Credit to them, they fought back. But credit to us, we kept them off the board late when we needed it on a back-to-back. (Doing that) against two hard teams is a big bonus for us.”
Trailing 4-1 in the third period, Edmonton got its second goal of the game midway through the period as Gagner lunged at a loose puck in the blue paint and poked it past an outstretched Wedgewood . It was Gagner’s first game back with the Oilers, rejoining the team for a third time after double hip surgery in the offseason.
PHOTOS: Hintz has 2 goals and an assist to help Stars beat Oilers for 3rd straight win
Gagner struck again with 6 1/2 minutes to play as he took a pass from Kane and nudged it towards the net to pull Edmonton within one.
The Oilers applied a ton of pressure with their goalie pulled but were unable to get another goal.
“I thought we were still in that game and you want to make a big play and score a goal to try and help us rally,” Gagner said. “We had a lot of chances. We created a lot and had a lot of looks with the goalie pulled but just couldn’t find a way to get the equalizer.”
Dallas opened the scoring 8:08 into the game right after Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins missed a golden opportunity. The Stars went the other way on a 2-on-1 with Duchene opting to shoot and beating Skinner down low for his second of the season.
The Oilers bounced back with 3 minutes left in the first period as Nugent-Hopkins stripped a puck in the Dallas zone and directed it to Kane, who blasted his third of the season past the Wedgewood’s glove.
The Stars regained the lead 3:25 into the second on another odd-man rush as Hintz passed across to Pavelski on a 3-on-1 break. He put his fourth of the season into the net before Skinner could get across.
Edmonton had a good chance to pull even again on a power play, but Evan Bouchard hit the post on two occasions.
Dallas made it 3-1 on a power play of their own with 3:54 left in the in the middle period as a pass deflected towards the net and was directed home by Hintz.
Pavelski made a perfect pass to Hintz at the side of the net and he tapped it in for his for his fifth to make it 4-1 at 2:37 of the third.
The Oilers scored twice 3:01 apart to pull within one and kept up the pressure the rest of the way.
“The last 10 minutes, we were taking it,” Pavelski said. “We didn’t play a lot in the O-zone and they were pushing and we had a couple of big blocks and tons of big saves from Wedgey and grinded one out.”
Oilers forward Connor Brown left the game in the second period with an injury and did not return.
UP NEXT
Stars: At Vancouver on Saturday night to wrap up a three-game trip.
Oiler: Host Nashville on Saturday to finish a four-game homestand.
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