Hintz hat trick helps Stars defeat Hurricanes for fifth straight win

DALLAS --Roope Hintz scored his first NHL hat trick for the Dallas Stars in their fifth straight win, 4-1 against the Carolina Hurricanes at American Airlines Center on Tuesday.

Joe Pavelski had a goal and two assists, and Braden Holtby made 39 saves for the Stars (11-7-2), who have outscored opponents 18-6 during the streak.
Hintz has seven goals in his past five games and 10 in the past nine.
"Right now, it's going in," Hintz said. "I'm getting good passes from my linemates (Pavelski, Jason Robertson) and teammates, so that helps."
Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored, and Frederik Andersen made 13 saves for the Hurricanes (15-5-1), who have lost their past two games and four of five (1-3-1).
"Ideally, we'd never lose two games in a row," Carolina defenseman Ian Cole said. "Maybe that's a bit of a pipe dream, but that's the goal. I think the foundational mindset behind that is, 'Hey, let's right the ship right away, let's not let this linger. Let's continue to play well,' but hey, we lost. That's not good enough.
"The name of the game as a professional athlete is to win. That's it. That should be our only focus. We played well today, we had a lot of shots, we had a lot of Grade A [chances]. We should have scored more goals, you know, X, Y, and Z, but we lost. So really, that's all that matters. We need to figure out ways to win, and we need to figure them out quick. We can't let this continue to slide, it's only going to hurt us in the long run."
Dallas scored within the first two minutes for the third straight game when Hintz collected the rebound of his own shot and put it top shelf to make it 1-0 at 1:13 of the first period.

Holtby made 13 saves in the first.
"It always helps at the start of the game when you can get a few shots to get you into the game," Holtby said. "The way Carolina plays, you know that's going to come. They work non-stop, and one of their big things is getting pucks to the net and recoveries off rebounds and kind of swarming that way. You know there's going to be a high quantity usually when you play them. You've just got to bear down in those areas, and I thought our guys did a phenomenal job tonight in those tough areas around the net."
Hintz scored his second of the game to extend the lead to 2-0 when he finished off a pass from Pavelski on a 2-on-1 at 14:57 of the second.
Pavelski made it 3-0 when the redirection of Robertson's shot went off Andersen's left arm at 9:31 of the third period.
"I'm just going through the goals, one hit the ref, hit the linesman. It doesn't get in, they turn around, 2-on-1, in your net," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "The other one, we didn't get it in, and it's in your net the other way. Those can't happen. The mistakes we're making are costing us. That's basically what's happening, where it's not going the other way. Obviously, they're making mistakes, because we're getting a ton of chances. But the ones we're making are biting us right now."

Kotkaniemi ended Holtby's shutout at 16:27 during a scramble in front to make it 3-1.
Hintz completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal at 17:10 for the 4-1 final.
"A ton of speed, a big body, skates well, shoots it," Pavelski said of Hintz. "(He) wants to shoot [the puck]. Makes a lot of good little plays and competes. That's No. 1, he competes. He's been playing great, and it's great to see the puck go in the net for him. He's one of the guys that drives this team."
Carolina outshot Dallas 17-5 in the third period.
"It's not exactly how we drew it up," Stars coach Rick Bowness said. "But good teams find a way to win, and right now we're finding a way to win. That team is so hard to play against. They make you play on the boards, and they're there first, and they're big and they're heavy.
"They made us play a game we really haven't had to play yet this year. But again, good teams find a way to win."
NOTES: Bowness became the first to coach 2,500 NHL games as either an assistant, associate, or head coach. Bowness has served as a head coach in 576 regular-season games over 12 seasons with the Winnipeg Jets, Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes and Stars. He is 176-328-48 with 24 ties. … Holtby won his 293rd NHL game (293-137-50) and passed Jacques Plante (292-119-88) for the most victories in his first 500 games played. … It was the Stars' first hat trick since Jamie Benn on Feb. 11, 2020, which was also against the Hurricanes. … Carolina has not scored a power-play goal in seven straight games and is 0-for-17 in that stretch.