Oettinger, Stars defeat Wild, push point streak to 7

Jake Oettinger made 38 saves, and the Dallas Stars extended their point streak to seven games with a 4-1 win against the Minnesota Wild at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Wednesday.

Roope Hintz had a goal and an assist, and Jason Robertson had two assists for the Stars (30-13-10), who have won two in a row and are 4-0-3 on their point streak. It was their first regulation win since Jan. 21, a span of six games (4-0 against the Arizona Coyotes).
"Good win," Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. "They made it difficult. They're a big, physical team that came in here and I think tried to impose that game on us. And I loved our response. I thought we didn't back down, physically didn't take a step back. I thought we played exactly how you have to play against a team like that."

Joel Eriksson Ek scored, and Filip Gustavsson made 33 saves for the Wild (27-19-4), who have lost two in a row and five of seven (2-5-0).
It was the first of a back to back for Minnesota, which hosts the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday.
"We just didn't find a way to score a goal," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "We're doing a lot of real good things. A lot of positives in this hockey game. We have to obviously stay as positive as we can. We play tomorrow night."
Jamie Benn scored his 20th goal of the season, splitting the middle and receiving a pass from Wyatt Johnston for a breakaway goal 23 seconds into the second period to give the Stars a 1-0 lead.
"Just kind of got the puck and kind of saw Benn there and he was yelling for it, which made it lot easier," Johnston said. I heard him calling for it and just tried to get it to him."
Radek Faksa increased the lead 2-0 at 5:40, finishing a 2-on-1 with Tyler Seguin.

Jani Hakanpaa
made it 3-0 at 10:51, deflecting in a shot from Hintz that went between Wild forward Marcus Foligno's legs
"That's not really the way I expect to score," Hakanpaa said. "It was nice it went in. I just felt something touch my stick, and then the guys were around me celebrating. So, always a good feeling for sure."
Eriksson Ek cut it to 3-1, redirecting a Kirill Kaprizov pass on the power play at 18:16.
Hintz scored an empty-net goal at 17:49 of the third period for the 4-1 final.
"The last six, seven minutes of the second period there, we really played strong and played well," Minnesota defenseman Jake Middleton said. "There was a big belief for us in that second intermission that we kind of have momentum going into the third. Again, it just goes back to we didn't finish. we haven't been scoring and that's got to change. That's on us, right? There's no if ands or buts about it. It's just us as players. We got to bear down and finish."
NOTES: Kaprizov has nine points (three goals, six assists) during a seven-game point streak. … Seguin got his 600th point with the Stars. … Dallas leads the NHL in empty-net goals (14). … Hintz has scored in three straight games. … Oettinger is 4-0-0 in his career against the Wild. … Benn reached 20 goals in a season for the 10th time. He is the third player in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history to have at least 10 20-goal seasons, joining Mike Modano (16) and Brian Bellows (10).