As far as starts to games go, Tuesday’s might’ve been the worst the Stars had all year.
Maybe even in years.
Stars goalie Jake Oettinger allowed four New Jersey Devils goals on the first five shots he faced before being benched in the first intermission. It wasn’t all his fault, by any means, as he faced Grade A after Grade A allowed by a defense that simply didn’t show up for the first period. But the Stars’ starting netminder didn’t make the saves to bail his teammates out that he had in his previous 14 starts where he went 12-0-2.
The Stars’ night got better from there, closing the gap to a 6-4 final, but they were never able to fully recover. Dallas has now lost three games in a row and four of its last five.
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Oettinger was benched at American Airlines Center for the first time since Pete DeBoer pulled him minutes into the Stars’ final game of last season’s Western Conference finals against Edmonton — a consequential move contributing to the coach’s firing weeks later. New coach Glen Gulutzan had benched Oettinger once before, on the road at Carolina on Jan. 6.
“We weren’t good enough for him in the first,” Stars forward Wyatt Johnston said. “He’s such an important part of our team, and he’s such an amazing goalie. It’s not fun to see your goalie get pulled. That’s on us to do a better job in front of him.”
Olympic golden goal scorer Jack Hughes beat his former Team USA teammate twice in the first period. Jesper Bratt and Connor Brown added the other two for New Jersey when they were given far too much space by the Stars’ skaters.
“We made too many mistakes as a D-corps and let lots of guys in behind us tonight,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “We knew that going in, just how they can get in behind you and use their speed. I thought, collectively, we weren’t good back there.”
Johnston matched Hughes’ two goals, scoring the lone Dallas goal in the first period before adding a second on the power play the next period. The goals brought Johnston to 40 on the season, making him the first Star to pass the 40-goal mark since Jason Robertson in 2022-23.
Robertson scored a goal to bring him to 39 and recorded assists on each of Johnston’s goals for a three-point game. With one more goal, Robertson and Johnston will be the first Stars teammates to record 40 goals in the same season.
Backup goalie Casey DeSmith filled in well for the Stars, giving them a chance to fight back and close the New Jersey advantage to one goal entering the third period. DeSmith stopped 15 of 16 shots he faced, but Timo Meier snuck a puck in early in the third period to put the game near out of reach.
Mavrik Bourque closed it to a one-goal margin again with 6:52 remaining, but Dallas couldn’t find the equalizer.
After scoring an average of 2.2 goals per game in their five prior contests, the Stars found some of the offense they were lacking. But their defense couldn’t contain a New Jersey team comfortably out of the East Coast playoff picture.
The Stars now head east to face four teams fighting in a neck-and-neck battle for spots in the postseason. The four-game road trip begins against the New York Islanders on Thursday.
“I honestly don’t think this is a lack of effort. It’s a lack of execution,” Gulutzan said. “I don’t think this is going to be a quick reset. I think we’re going to have to work our way out of it and execute our way out of it. Usually, the way we get out of these is play a real stingy road game. We’re going to have to find one of those quickly.”