– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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DALLAS — The Dallas Stars, as a man, probably are sick and tired of hearing the hackneyed, yet factual, axiom of the “next man up” mentality because of the alarming spate of injuries, with the latest coming less than 24 hours ago to one of the franchise’s leaders, Tyler Seguin, for close to the last decade. On Wednesday night, the Stars who stepped up the most were the ones who have been Seguin’s teammate the longest as Dallas closed out its annual New York City road trip on a high note.
Jake Oettinger made 31 saves to earn his first shutout of the season as the Stars blanked the New Jersey Devils 3-0 inside the Prudential Center. Miro Heiskanen and Jason Robertson scored six minutes apart in the latter half of the second period, before Mikko Rantanen tallied in the third as Dallas rebounded from its defeat against the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.
More than the loss in the standings, the Stars had to pick themselves up from the emotional gut punch in learning this morning that Seguin, who was injured in that defeat to the Blueshirts, was diagnosed with a torn ACL and is expected to miss the rest of the season.
The Stars were second-best most of the first period during the second game of a back-to-back, as New Jersey tilted the ice early and created the best chances in the first 20 minutes. Oettinger shined the brightest at the end of the period, making a double save on Juho Lammikko on a partial breakaway and the rebound on former Dallas Star Luke Glendening, the latter shot the goalkeeper stopped as he extended the left pad onto the post.
Dallas took the lead midway through the second when Roope Hintz sent a cross-ice pass to a pinching Heiskanen, who lifted a shot above the right shoulder of Devils goalkeeper Jacob Markstrom to open the scoring at the 11:34 mark.
Robertson doubled the Stars’ lead at 17:36 with his team-leading 18th goal of the season off a pass from Esa Lindell. Captain Jamie Ben had assists on both of Dallas’ goals in the period.
While the Stars have won five of their last six, the Devils are heading the opposite direction as they have dropped six of their last nine games, with all six losses coming in regulation and all of those contests played without star center Jack Hughes, who suffered an off-ice hand injury last month.
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