Ducks score 7 again, hold off Stars for 5th straight win

DALLAS -- Chris Kreider scored twice, and the Anaheim Ducks held off the Dallas Stars for their fifth straight win, 7-5 at American Airlines Center on Thursday.

It was Anaheim’s second consecutive game scoring seven goals following a 7-3 win against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.

“I think it's a resilient group,” Kreider said. “Obviously, a bit of jarring, some chances. I think we liked what we were able to do 5-on-5. Got to keep it 5-on-5 for longer periods of time. Early on, turning pucks over, getting to the neutral (zone), too. They’re a good team over there, veteran team, good lines.

“We made some not great decisions on lines once we started getting in behind their [defense], playing the [offensive zone] a little bit. It was a heavier game. It wasn’t going to be super pretty.”

Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier each had a goal and an assist, and Alex Killorn, Beckett Sennecke, and Troy Terry each had two assists for the Ducks (9-3-1), who have won seven of eight. Lukas Dostal made 21 saves.

“It was a crazy game. We talked about their power play and how lethal it was, and we saw firsthand that it really is lethal,” Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville said. “We still took some careless penalties and our start again, those two things were not great. But certainly some production across the board, timely goals, getting the power play going and a couple of nice plays as we went along in the game.

“Second period, we had the puck a lot and did some good things with it, some dangerous shifts that didn’t produce, but at the same time, we had good offensive-zone time and good momentum going into that third.”

Wyatt Johnston had two goals and an assist, Mikko Rantanen had a goal and two assists, and Miro Heiskanen had four assists for the Stars (7-4-3), who had their seven-game point streak end (4-0-3). Jake Oettinger made 18 saves.

“We had a really good first,” Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said. “Two power-play goals, but we earned them, earned the penalties in the zone. Chances, I thought we were above them all night. They got the early goal off a penalty kill that was going good, and that kind of ignited them. We made some mistakes. Our game plan against a very good rush team was to limit the amount of rushes. Then we started extending our shifts and turning pucks over after one goal. Our second (period) buried us.”

Johnston gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 5:49 of the first period when he one-timed a feed from Roope Hintz in the high slot on the power play.

Johnston scored another power-play goal by deflecting in a point shot from Heiskanen to extend it to 2-0 at 16:18.

“Goals haven’t been coming that easy this last little bit,” Johnston said. “We need to keep working and try to play in their own (end) more often, not rely on rush chances and stuff like that. Playing in their end a little more will help a ton. I think it’s always good when you score goals, but can definitely defend a lot better. You’re not going to win many nights when you let in seven.”

Kreider cut it to 2-1 at 1:16 of the second period, scoring on a power play with a shot from the top of the left face-off circle.

Ian Moore tied it 2-2 at 2:48 with his first NHL goal in his 10th career game. He deflected in a cross-crease pass from Ryan Poehling.

“It was a great play. I saw we had some great speed, [Poehling] was flying in the neutral zone and trying to support him,” Moore said. “He beat the guy wide, and he put it right on my tape and just tried to bat it at net to see what happened. I’m not down there too much, but I was lucky it went in and it was a great play by him.”

Tyler Seguin put Dallas back ahead 3-2 at 8:19. Sam Steel found him behind Anaheim's defense in the neutral zone before he buried a shot from the slot.

“Not many positives when you lose,” Seguin said. “It’s still early, we’ve got a lot of new stuff going on. I think we’ve been searching a little bit, especially 5-on-5 offense, and knowing it’s coming. One thing we’ve been proud of is we’ve been pretty stingy defensively, so that’s the disappointment from tonight and something I’m sure we’ll talk about tomorrow.”

Gauthier tied it 3-3 at 14:07 on a shot from the left face-off dot. It was his third straight game with a goal and also extended his point streak to eight games (eight goals, seven goals) and multipoint streak to four games (five goals, five assists).

Olen Zellweger gave Anaheim a 4-3 lead at 17:05, scoring a power-play goal off a cross-ice pass to the back door.

Kreider extended it to 5-3 with his second goal of the game, deflecting the puck in front of Oettinger 16 seconds into the third period.

Rantanen cut it to 5-4 at 1:50 on the power play, but Carlsson scored short-handed at 9:22 to make it 6-4.

Carlsson extended his point streak to eight games (four goals, 10 assists).

“I think they’re the best power play in the League for a reason,” Kreider said. “They’re good. Obviously that short-handed goal was big for us, staying with it, not getting frustrated. Their goaltender made some big saves. Don’t want to go to the penalty box too much against them.”

Hintz cut it to 6-5 at 16:39 when the puck deflected off him as he set a screen in front of Dostal with Oettinger pulled for the extra attacker.

Mason McTavish scored into the empty net at 18:07 for the 7-5 final.

“I think we just turned too many pucks over,” Hintz said. “They were coming at us all the time, so we didn’t have any legs to forecheck or go to their end. We’ve just got to clean up those turnovers. Sometimes [turnovers are a] credit to them, but I think today, I think we could just make a simple play. Sometimes it’s a really good strength from the other team, but I think it was kind of 50-50 today.”

NOTES: The Ducks scored seven goals in consecutive games for the first time in franchise history. … Anaheim became the sixth team in the past 40 years to score seven or more goals in a game at least four times through their first 13 games of a season, joining the Pittsburgh Penguins (six times in 1995-96; four times in both 2019-20 and 1992-1993), Edmonton Oilers (four times in 1987-88) and Toronto Maple Leafs (four times in 1987-88). … Heiskanen became the sixth defenseman in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history with multiple four-point games (also March 5, 2024), joining Craig Hartsburg (seven games), Sergei Zubov (three), John Klingberg (two), Barry Gibbs (two) and Larry Murphy (two).