Oettinger makes 38 saves in Stars win against Penguins 

PITTSBURGH -- Jake Oettinger made 38 saves and the Dallas Stars handed the Pittsburgh Penguins their third straight loss with a 4-1 victory at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday.

Jason Robertson and Thomas Harley each had a goal and an assist, and Evgenii Dadonov and Wyatt Johnston also scored for the Stars (4-0-1), who have won three in a row.

“They’re a good team over there,” Oettinger said. “Those guys know how to win, so another good test for us. We made some plays at big times and got a good road win. That’s kind of the group that we want to model our games after. They know what it takes. It’s just a good test, good win.”

Bryan Rust scored for the fifth time in six games this season, and Alex Nedeljkovic made 30 saves for the Penguins (2-4-0), who have been outscored 14-6 in their past three games.

“We can’t get discouraged,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “We just have to get more determined. We’ll go back to work tomorrow and we’ll see what we can take from this one. We’ll watch some film. We’ll go out and practice, and we’ll get ready for the next one.”

Dallas was outshot 30-20 in the first two periods but erased a 1-0 deficit when Robertson and Dadonov each scored his first goal of the season in the second.

Robertson tied it 1-1 at 7:37, taking a snap shot in the slot and collecting his own rebound before skating above the crease and tucking a backhand under Nedeljkovic’s left pad.

“We were just reloading and trying to make it difficult, not give them free offense,” Robertson said. “They’re a skilled team over there. They like to make plays off the rush. Our tracking was really good today.

“I haven’t had many scoring chances lately. Hopefully just get that confidence going and get rolling. Start feeling it and hopefully it keeps rolling.”

Dadonov gave Dallas a 2-1 lead at 16:03 when Matt Duchene spun off Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang for a backhand that Dadonov tapped in at the right post.

Harley scored to make it 3-1 at 5:22 of the third on a one-timer from the high slot into an empty net after Nedeljkovic came out of his crease and failed to deal with a loose puck.

“I tend to be pretty aggressive, and it was the wrong decision,” Nedeljkovic said. “I have to just let whatever happens, happen. Behind the play, we had some back pressure coming. … We talked the last couple days about maybe playing too loose in [a 4-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday].

“I thought tonight, overall, we did a great job of putting pucks behind them and being disciplined in that aspect. I have to do the same thing and make some better decisions.”

Johnston extended the lead to 4-1 at 13:51 when his backhand hit both the post and Nedeljkovic before just crossing the line.

“I thought in the second and the third, we got it back again, which was nice,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “Those games early in the season have gotten away from us. [Oettinger] made some saves. I thought we got our game back and played pretty well down the stretch.”

Rust put Pittsburgh ahead 1-0 at 19:22 of the first period. Sidney Crosby banked a pass off the boards through the neutral zone to Jake Guentzel, who carried it to the left face-off circle and dragged a pass around a sliding Harley to Rust for a wrist shot in front.

“I think we let them hang around,” Crosby said. “We couldn’t build on our lead. They hung around and were opportunistic. I think with the start we had, with the chances we had, obviously it would have been nice to have a bit of a cushion.”

NOTES: Penguins defenseman John Ludvig, making his NHL debut, left at 10:41 of the second after hitting Stars forward Radek Faksa in the neutral zone. He remained down for several minutes before being helped to the locker room by teammates Marcus Pettersson and Noel Acciari. Ludvig was still being evaluated after the game, Sullivan said. Ludvig was claimed off waivers by Pittsburgh from the Florida Panthers on Oct. 9. … Crosby’s assist on Rust’s goal was his 955th in the NHL, one away from tying Mark Recchi (956) for 15th in League history.