Robertson has 3 points, Stars score 8 to cruise past Ducks

ANAHEIM -- Jason Robertson had two goals and an assist for the Dallas Stars in an 8-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Friday.

Roope Hintz and Thomas Harley each had a goal and an assist, and Mikko Rantanen, Radek Faksa and Miro Heiskanen each had two assists. Casey DeSmith made 23 saves for the Stars (24-7-5), who were coming off a 5-3 win at the San Jose Sharks on Thursday and have won three straight overall.

Dallas also improved to 13-2-1 in the second game of a back-to-back over the past two seasons, the best points percentage in the NHL.

"Veteran group," Dallas captain Jamie Benn said. "We've been there before, and we know if we play with structure and stay within our systems, we're going to have a chance every night."

Ryan Poehling, Beckett Sennecke and Mikael Granlund scored for the Ducks (20-13-2), who have lost four of five (1-3-1).

Lukas Dostal gave up four goals on seven shots before he was replaced by Petr Mrazek at 14:19 of the first. Mrazek finished with 14 saves.

"It was ugly," Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. "I give (the Stars) credit, they can make plays. They certainly had their way with us all night long."

The Stars scored short-handed on the only power play of the first period after Faksa stole the puck from Ducks defenseman Jacob Trouba below the Anaheim goal line and fed Oskar Back for a one-timer from the slot for a 1-0 lead at 2:37.

"Huge," Sam Steel said of the short-handed goal. "We don't have many shorties this year, but we're starting to get some as of late and that's just from doing the right things."

Poehling scored on a rebound in the crease to tie it 1-1 at 3:32.

Hintz found an opening in the high slot and scored with a wrist shot to give Dallas a 2-1 lead at 4:42.

Steel extended the lead to 3-1 at 12:41. He drove to the Anaheim net and collided with the right post just as the puck went off the stick blade of Trouba and fluttered across the goal line.

The posts came off their pegs just before the puck crossed the goal line, but the goal was upheld after a video review.

"I just saw the post coming at me," Steel said. "Ran out of options."

Harley ended Dostal's night when he scored with a wrist shot from the right circle to extend the lead to 4-1 at 14:19.

“That's one of the best teams in the league and we let them just play their game," Ducks captain Radko Gudas said. "We weren't making it hard for them to get pucks through and we screened our own goalie, so it was very hard today for the tendies.”

The Stars went on their first power play and Robertson scored from in front of the crease for a 5-1 lead at 11:10 of the second period.

Robertson scored again after faking a forehand and scoring with a backhand off a drive to the net to make it 6-1 at 15:10.

"We clogged up the middle of the ice through the neutral zone and they fired some bad passes through," Benn said. "We took advantage of that."

Adam Erne, who had missed the previous 18 games with a lower-body injury, made it 7-1 at 18:30 of the second.

Sennecke scored on a one-timer from the left circle off the rush to cut it to 7-2 at 1:01 of the third, but Ilya Lyubushkin scored 41 seconds later from the right circle to make it 8-2, the eighth goal on 16 shots for Dallas.

Granlund scored off a loose puck in the crease to make it 8-3 at 14:22.

The Ducks will host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, likely giving Dostal another opportunity at starting.

"Have something to prove (Saturday), knowing that this one was unacceptable," Quenneville said.

NOTES: Dallas leads the NHL with 30 points in road games (13-2-4). ... The Stars are the first team in the NHL to score seven goals through two periods this season. ... The Stars are 85-41-15 all time against the Ducks, their most wins against any NHL team. ... Rantanen has 18 points (five goals, 13 assists) in his past 11 games against Anaheim. ... Heiskanen has 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) in his past six games against the Ducks. ... Poehling has a goal and four assists in a three-game point streak. ... Sennecke leads NHL rookies with 28 points (11 goals, 17 assists) ... The Ducks, New Jersey Devils, Nashville Predators and Utah Mammoth were the only teams that had not allowed a short-handed goal entering Friday's games.