Robertson gets 3 points, Stars shut out Canadiens for 4th straight win

MONTREAL -- Jason Robertson had two goals and an assist, and Casey DeSmith made 24 saves for the Dallas Stars, who won their fourth straight, 7-0 against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Thursday.

It was DeSmith's 13th shutout in the NHL, and his first since Jan. 25.

“I think [DeSmith] told me this is his favorite rink,” Robertson said. “I think he said his father was here, too. It was like a perfect thing and we wanted to play hard for him at the end. He had to make some big saves and credit to him to stick with it, too. Up 6-, 7-0, he was mentally sharp, and clean and crisp, and made those big saves.”

Radek Faksa had three assists, Colin Blackwell had a goal and an assist, and Mikko Rantanen had two assists for Dallas (11-4-3), which improved to 6-1-2 on the road.

“They generate a lot and they have a ton of skill, young skill,” DeSmith said. “They’re fast, they generate a lot off the rush, good power play. I thought we did a great job defending, especially in the last two periods. We really just defended hard and got counter-rushes and made them pay.

“And that’s just kind of the way we play. We defend well and then we go down and we make teams pay for their breakdowns. We have a lot of skill, a lot of guys who can put the puck in the net, and we did that tonight.”

Jakub Dobes allowed five goals on 13 shots in the first two periods for Montreal (10-5-2), which is 1-2-2 in its past five games. Sam Montembeault made four saves on six shots in the third.

“You don’t want too much concern to creep in, but we’ve got to clean things up and get back to the basics of what makes our team successful,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. “And that’s playing with the puck, forechecking, being a hungry team and an aggressive team, and I think recently we’ve backed off the aggressiveness and just kind of been sitting back a little bit too much defensively.”

Canadiens forward Alex Newhook had to be helped off the ice at 4:10 of the second period after he crashed feet first into the end boards. There was no update on his status after the game.

“It was really tough,” Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher said. “Obviously, we’re going to be without ‘Newy’ for a little bit here, a player that worked really hard in the offseason and knew how important the season was to him and our team. He was having an unbelievable year and you just feel for him at this point.”

Wyatt Johnston’s power-play goal at 14:21 of the first period gave the Stars a 1-0 lead. He was in the bumper position to one-time a feed from Roope Hintz for his 100th NHL goal.

Esa Lindell made it 2-0 at 3:50 of the second with a wrist shot stick side on Dobes from the left side of the slot off a pass from Miro Heiskanen.

Tyler Seguin pushed the lead to 3-0 at 7:10 when he scored on a breakaway. Seguin drove in alone and put a snap shot past Dobes glove side after he got behind the defense and accepted Robertson’s stretch pass from Dallas' defensive zone.

“It’s one of those that you just hope it gets to him,” Robertson said.

Robertson put the Stars up 4-0 at 15:10. He cut across the goalmouth, received a pass from Thomas Harley and lifted a backhand over Dobes.

Robertson made it 5-0 just 1:39 later with a long-distance wrist shot through traffic at 16:49.

Alexander Petrovic made it 6-0 at 2:01 of the third period with a wrist shot past Montembeault. It was his first goal since April 2, 2018.

Blackwell scored at 14:40 of the third for the 7-0 final.

“We were just making plays at the right time and the power play came through, the PK played great,” Petrovic said. “Up and down the lineup it was a solid effort.”

NOTES: Robertson has 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in his past seven games. ... It was the second time in franchise history the Stars scored seven goals in a shutout win on the road. The Minnesota North Stars achieved the feat in a 7-0 win at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Jan. 12, 1983. … Johnston (22 years, 183 days) became the third-youngest player in Stars/North Stars franchise history to score 100 goals. Only Brian Bellows (20 years, 179 days) and Mike Modano (22 years, 173 days) reached the mark at a younger age. … Heiskanen's assist was his 300th NHL point, moving him past Brad Maxwell for the fifth-most by a defenseman in Stars/North Stars history. He also became the ninth Finnish defenseman in NHL history to reach 300 points. … Dobes is 0-1-1 in his past two starts after winning his first six of the season.