McDavid point streak ends at 17 to open season, Oilers fall to Stars

DALLAS -- Connor McDavid had his season-opening point streak end at 17 games when the Edmonton Oilers lost to the Dallas Stars 4-1 at American Airlines Center on Tuesday.

"I think we took time and space away from [McDavid] and played him pretty hard, so he didn't have that much time to make plays," Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen said. "Of course, he's a great player, [he'll] always have some chances, but I think we played pretty well against him tonight."
McDavid's streak was the third-longest in Edmonton history to open a season. Wayne Gretzky had a 30-game streak in 1982-83 and a 51-game streak in 1983-84.
"His accomplishment so far has been unbelievable," Oilers coach Dave Tippett said. "This streak's over, so, move on."
John Klingberg had three assists, and Roope Hintz had a goal and an assist for the Stars (8-7-2), who have won four of five. Jake Oettinger made 21 saves for his third win in three starts this season.

Ryan McLeod scored, and Stuart Skinner made 29 saves for the Oilers (13-5-0).
"When we give up two power-play goals -- actually three, one right at the end of it -- you're chasing the game," Tippett said. "Against a heavy team like that, they're going to play in front of the puck all night and you get behind, it's hard to jump back in."
Dallas took a 1-0 lead on the power play when Klingberg's point shot was deflected by Alexander Radulov and went off the stick of Hintz at 10:59 of the first period.
"They moved around well," Oilers defenseman Cody Ceci said about the Stars power play. "They've [got] two pretty balanced power plays and they showed it tonight. We'll have to take a look at it, but we'll have to move on pretty quickly because we have another game tomorrow night (at the Arizona Coyotes)."
Jason Robertson made it 2-0 on the power play at 15:59 when he finished off a tic-tac-toe passing sequence from Klingberg and Hintz from the right face-off circle.
"I think [the power play] has been good the entire year," Klingberg said. "You're not going to score every time, but you can build momentum out of it. We've got two really good units battling for the ice time, so it's what you need. I think when you're competitive like that, you want to be on the ice. Both units are really feeling it right now, so it's a good thing."
Denis Gurianov made it 3-0 at 9:27 of the second period after Klingberg sprung him through the neutral zone for a breakaway. The goal came four seconds after a Dallas power play expired.
"We played great team efforts at times," Stars forward Joe Pavelski said. "A lot of little things, blocked shots, things that throughout a game a team feeds off of. We've simplified a couple things, but good commitment, minds are settling in a little bit, guys are feeling the puck a little bit. It's going in the net at times. Understanding our game, we have to be patient at times, and knowing that we're going to create our chances."

McLeod cut it to 3-1 at 10:35 off a cross-ice pass from Leon Draisaitl, who got his NHL-leading 36th point (18 goals, 18 assists) in his 18th game.
"It takes a group of five working together with everyone on the same page," Dallas coach Rick Bowness said about limiting Edmonton to one goal. "We try to take away the middle of the ice and push them to the outside. If they come through the middle of the ice, they're going to do a lot of damage. Our forwards have to come back hard through the middle and protect the middle of the ice while pushing them to the outside and then they're a little easier to contain."
Luke Glendening deflected a Ryan Suter point shot at 8:19 of the third period to make it 4-1.
"I thought we came out pretty good 5-on-5 and then we took a couple of penalties," Ceci said. "They scored on them, and we got behind and before I knew it we were chasing the game again. We've played pretty good at home, maybe we've got to find a way to play a little better on the road."
NOTES: Edmonton defenseman Duncan Keith left midway through the second period with an upper-body injury. There was no update. … Oilers forward Derek Ryan had one blocked shot and one hit in 9:32 after missing two games with concussion symptoms. … Klingberg had the 67th multipoint game of his NHL career, the fourth-most by a defenseman in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history (Sergei Zubov, 115; Craig Hartsburg, 81; Brad Maxwell, 68). … Hintz has scored six goals in his past six games after not scoring in his first 11.