“It’s a really good team and [we] played a really good game against them,” Heiskanen said. “We know that we can beat anyone in this League if we play at our best, and I think the last 40 minutes were really good. We have to keep doing that.”
Sam Steel scored and Jake Oettinger made 26 saves for the Stars (4-3-1), who snapped a four-game winless streak (0-3-1).
“We didn’t follow the game plan in the first. Too many odd-man rushes [against], and then we chased our errors. When you chase a mistake, it’s because you’re trying too hard,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “We reset after the first period and said, ‘Listen, we’ve got a 40-minute game here to work ourselves back in.’ We’re not changing the game plan, the game plan’s right. They’re heavy on the walls and we can’t mess around at the blue lines. I think the guys did a good job of regrouping and pushing back.”
Jackson Blake and Sebastian Aho each scored for the Hurricanes (6-2-0), who lost for only the second time this season. Brandon Bussi made 31 saves.
Blake gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 4:14 in the first period on a snap shot from the high slot after he won the puck off a face-off to the left of Oettinger.