Robertson scores twice, Stars send Panthers to third straight loss

Jason Robertson scored two goals when the Dallas Stars defeated the Florida Panthers 4-1 at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Saturday.

Anton Khudobin made 20 saves for the Stars (15-14-10), who have won four of six.
"We needed it," Dallas coach Rick Bowness said. "That's a very good hockey club over there, obviously fighting for first place in the (Discover Central) division, and we finally got to their goalie. We needed a team effort, we needed everyone to contribute. We got a big goal from the fourth line, big goal obviously on the power play as well, and [Robertson] with a couple of big goals. We needed the balance and we needed a good team effort today and we got it."
Aleksander Barkov scored for the Panthers (26-12-4), who have lost three in a row. Florida scored three goals in those three games, all by Barkov. Sergei Bobrovsky made 16 saves.
"The last couple of games we haven't been playing exactly the way we want to play," Barkov said. "Obviously the teams are playing really well against us. Gotta give credit to them. But it's up to us. We have to find the way how to win these types of games. These games feel like they're playoff games, so we've got to find a way to win these."
Dallas took a 2-0 lead in the first 1:49 when Robertson and Joel L'Esperance combined for the fastest two goals for the Stars since they were the Minnesota North Stars in 1993.
"That was definitely not starting on time," Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. "Can't blame it on anything not being ready. It was a huge deficit to try to overcome. … It was one of those games, a garbage can game for me. First one of the year, and let's move on."

Robertson gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 1:00 with a wrist shot from the slot after a turnover in the Florida zone. L'Esperance made it 2-0 at 1:49 when he redirected Jason Dowling's pass on a 2-on-1 after a turnover in the neutral zone.
Jamie Benn made it 3-0 with a power-play goal at 9:03 after taking a pass from Joe Pavelski.
"Winning's fun," Benn said. "It takes a lot of hard work, takes 20 guys that are in the lineup that night. But we just have to find a way to keep going here. A lot of important hockey coming up and we have to find ways to win these games."
Barkov made it 3-1 with 2 seconds left in the second period with a power-play goal off a rebound after Patric Hornqvist's wraparound attempt.
Robertson made 4-1 at 1:21 of the third period with a wrist shot through traffic from the high slot. It is the first multigoal game in the NHL for the rookie forward.
"I originally thought about dumping the puck but realized we kind of had a 2-on-2 rush," Robertson said. "I decided to keep the puck in, Roope [Hintz] drove the middle, opened up a little space, I just got to the middle and just thought about shooting it and luckily it went in."

Khudobin, who came in with a .951 save percentage against the Panthers in three games this season, stopped three breakaways.
"We've talked about big goals at the right time, we got those tonight, and that's the difference between now and earlier in the year," Bowness said. "The save wasn't there when we needed it the most, and the goal wasn't there, which is just as important. To keep moving forward, we need to continue to get both the big save at the right time and the big goal at the right time."
NOTES: During the game, the Panthers announced the acquisition of defenseman Brandon Montour in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres for a third-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft. … Dallas was credited with 28 blocked shots, including six by defenseman Jamie Oleksiak. … Florida forward Jonathan Huberdeau did not have a point for a fifth consecutive game. … The two opening goals were the Stars' fastest since Nov. 19, 1992 when the Minnesota North Stars scored twice in the first 66 seconds of a 4-1 win at the Tampa Bay Lightning.