Game Recap: Stars Prevail in Scoreless Shootout Battle In Chicago

It took 65 minutes and a shootout, but the Dallas Stars left Chicago with a 1-0 shootout victory on Friday night.

After neither team could score a goal in regulation or overtime, three players found the net in the skills competition portion of the game. Alex Debricnat scored for Chicago as the first shooter, Jason Robertson answered right away, and then Jacob Peterson scored on a slick move in the sixth round to give Dallas their sixth straight road victory.

"The mainstay are those four guys," Bowness said of Jason Robertson, Joe Pavelski, Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov. "And if you get that far down, then you go by your gut."

Dallas controlled much of the game, although it was played in a fast-paced style that fit the Hawks team game. The shots were 34-29 Chicago but a large portion of those were harmlessly saved by Jake Oettinger while Marc Andre-Fleury was heavily tested with grade-A chances throughout the game.

Fleury made multiple miraculous saves when it looked like Dallas would finally take the lead. First, he robbed Robertson from the slot, then he stoned Alexander Radulov on an incredible rush up the ice, and finally, he made two more spectacular saves in the third to keep the game scoreless. Dallas also added three posts, coming that close to scoring the game’s only goal.

It was the first shutout for Dallas this season, who was one of the last teams to blank an opponent (Buffalo is still stuck on zero). Oettinger made 34 saves, recording his second career shutout. He has stopped 80 of the last 81 shots he has faced.

"He's on his game right now, and we need him," Stars coach Rick Bowness said. "He's making huge saves. Fleury made some phenomenal saves, but Jake made the big saves at the right time."

Oettinger has also drastically improved his game past 60 minutes. Last season, he went 3-7-0 after regulation while the Stars lost 14 of those games overall. This year, he is 3-0, helping boost his overall record to 15-5-0. It just so happens that the victory came over Fluery, Oettinger’s favorite NHL player when he was growing up, another special moment for the kid.

"It's awesome," Oettinger said of the transformation. "Last year, I was pretty tough to watch in the shootout, but it's just practice and changing my philosophy a little bit."

The special teams were held off the scoresheet of course, but that does not mean they did not get their chances. Dallas went 0-3 and Chicago went 0-2 but both teams had multiple dangerous chances on their man advantage.

In the overtime period, chaos ensued. It can be hit-or-miss in 3 on 3 overtime today, as some teams like to possess and slow the game down, but sometimes you still get the hectic back and forth action that we saw on Friday.

Chicago had 5-6 odd-man rushes including three straight 2 on 1’s led by Patrick Kane on a shift that lasted over two minutes. Oettinger made a couple of saves, came out near the blue line once to push a puck away from the Hawks offense, and the Stars defense got their sticks involved to break up a few chances.

Dallas had their own chances as well. Tyler Seguin hit the crossbar early in the overtime after splitting the defense similarly to Radulov earlier in the game. Chicago outshot Dallas 5-2 in overtime.

The victory gives Dallas their sixth straight on the road, a 7-3-0 record in their last 10 games, and nine wins in their last 12. The two points also briefly bumped them into a playoff spot before Los Angeles won later in the night to steal it back.

"I think we just have been trying to play how we've been playing at home," center Roope Hintz said of the improved success on the road. "We kind of found a way in the last road trip we had, and I think we just have to play like that."

The Stars wrap up their road trip with a Sunday night matchup against the Arizona Coyotes before returning to Dallas.

Sam’s Three Stars Of The Game

Third Star: Jacob Peterson (Shootout winning goal)

Second Star: Marc-Andre Fleury (29 save shutout, loss in shootout)

First Star: Jake Oettinger (34 save shutout, shootout win)