Hintz scores twice, helps Stars rally past Canadiens

DALLAS -- Roope Hintz scored twice, and the Dallas Stars rallied for a 4-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at American Airlines Center on Friday.

Jason Robertson had two assists, and Jake Oettinger made 22 saves for the Stars (20-9-6), who trailed 2-0 before scoring four straight goals.
Dallas is 4-1-1 in its past six games.
"You have to give Montreal credit. Last game before Christmas, it's always hard to keep your team focused on the task at hand," Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. "Everyone's got family and places to go. I give them credit. They came ready to play, they were really good and put us in a hole."
Michael Pezzetta had a goal and an assist, and Jake Allen made 32 saves for the Canadiens (15-16-3).
"It's frustrating," Montreal forward Jake Evans said. "I feel like we've been growing as a team when it comes to having that lead and keeping it. That's just a really good team. Kind of shot ourselves in the foot with penalties. I think the first two periods, we played really well 5-on-5. If we'd stuck with that, I think we would have been smooth sailing."

Evans scored on the power play to give the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 4:04 in the first period when he split Esa Lindell and
Jani Hakanpaa
and drove to the front of the net.
"The early penalty kind of killed our start, and they score obviously," Robertson said. "But we're a resilient group and responded the right way. Glad we got it done tonight."
Pezzetta made it 2-0 at 2:24 in the second period on an odd-man rush.
"We know our brand of hockey, when we're on top of teams playing fast and playing hard and quick, we're a very good hockey team, as we showed today for most of the game," Pezzetta said. "I think that was the message going into the game was to play fast, play on top of guys, and raise our standard."

Hintz cut it to 2-1 at 15:19 with a deflection from the slot on the power play. He scored again with the man-advantage to tie it 2-2 at 2:27 of the third period when he deflected a Robertson high slot shot.
Wyatt Johnston scored at 15:00 to give Dallas a 3-2 lead when he shot in his own rebound on the power play with Pezzetta in the box for tripping.
"[Pezzetta] is a guy that takes care of the team. I know he's going to have a tough time sleeping about the penalty he took," Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. "The game happens fast. … You know what you're going to get from [Pezzetta]. Tonight he got rewarded for some quality plays, and unfortunately that penalty costs, and I know he's going to take it to heart."
Johnston became the youngest player (19 years, 223 days) to score in three consecutive games since the Stars relocated to Dallas from Minnesota in 1993-94.
"I'm just trying to do my best to help the team win, help pitch in," Johnston said. "Lucky enough I've been able to get some bounces the last three games. I look forward to trying to keep it going and help the team win games."

Joel Kiviranta scored into the empty net at 19:43 for the 4-2 final.