Allen makes 35 saves in debut, Devils defeat Stars

DALLAS -- Jake Allen made 35 saves in his debut with the New Jersey Devils, who defeated the Dallas Stars 6-2 at American Airlines Center on Thursday.

Allen was making his first start since being acquired in a trade with the Montreal Canadiens on March 8.

“Not a good first seven minutes, but I wanted to dig in for this group, make a good first impression, try to do the best I could do for them,” Allen said. “They gave me some goal support there in the second, but ultimately, I was impressed with the way we played with the lead. I thought we played very defensively, very mature. Got pucks out, didn’t make too many mistakes, too many errors. We tried to simplify the game. The win was obviously crucial for us here in the standings, but I was really impressed with the way the guys played with a lot of maturity in their game.”

Timo Meier and Chris Tierney each had a goal and an assist for the Devils (32-30-4), who won for the second time in seven games (2-5-0).

“This was going to be a tough matchup for our group. That’s a real good hockey team over there. A veteran group that has a lot of size to it,” New Jersey coach Travis Green said. “I thought our young [defense] played well tonight. They had us hemmed in a little bit at times, but we kept them to the outside and Jake was solid in goal.”

Wyatt Johnston and Craig Smith scored for the Stars (40-19-9), who have lost two in a row after a five-game winning streak. Jake Oettinger allowed four goals on 10 shots before being replaced by Scott Wedgewood (eight saves) in the second period.

“The frustrating thing is we came out and got the first goal. You’d like to think that’s a good sign and you can build on that,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “Instead, we were really flat for a big portion of the rest of that period, for sure. Dug ourselves a hole, and unlike San Jose and some of the other places where we’ve found a way to dig ourselves out, we didn’t tonight. But if you’re going to play that game, you’re not going to be able to do that every night. We got what we deserved.”

Johnston gave the Stars a 1-0 lead 15 seconds into the first period on a shot from the slot after fighting through three defenders.

Erik Haula tied it 1-1 at 5:41. He intercepted a clearing pass from Stars forward Jamie Benn, drove to the front of the net and chipped a shot into the near corner.

“They are good players against us, too, but we need to be careful with the puck and make the right plays at the right time,” Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen said. “We don’t want to turn over the puck in our own zone, but sometimes it happens. Try to avoid those and clean it up a little bit, play a little more simple.”

Smith put Dallas back ahead 2-1 at 12:04 on a shot from the goal line that deflected in off Allen.

Tierney tied it 2-2 at 17:14 when his centering pass deflected off Heiskanen’s stick past Oettinger.

“We got some bounces. I thought we played pretty good for the first 40, and then we defended well in the third,” Haula said. “The last three games, Carolina, Rangers, we didn’t get rewarded. We played pretty good and definitely could have won those games. Now, a good team effort and a nice two points for us.”

The Devils scored three times in the first 5:12 of the second period to take a 5-2 lead.

Dawson Mercer made it 3-2 at 1:31. He took a pass from Nico Hischier and spun to the side of the crease before shooting high on the blocker side of Oettinger.

Meier pushed it to 4-2 at 3:52 with a shot from the high slot off a pass from Jesper Bratt, and Tomas Nosek made it 5-2 at 5:12 when his shot deflected in off Stars defenseman Jani Hakanpää’s stick.

“First period, I thought we had some good looks. They were able to stay with us there, then they got one in the second [on the] first shift,” Dallas forward Matt Duchene said. “Then it was just bang-bang-bang after that, and all of a sudden we were down 5-2 pretty quick. After that, they just punted pucks out into the neutral zone. Give credit to their goalie, he played really well. He lets the first shot in of the game, then turns around and plays a pretty good game. We had some looks. We had some really good chances in the third, we just got too far into a hole.”

Alexander Holtz extended it to 6-2 at 14:25 of the third period on a rebound from the bottom of the right face-off circle.

“Every game is tight and important, especially as we come down the stretch here,” Wedgewood said. “There’s no lack of feeling in the room we want to be playing our best hockey as the season comes to a close, and that’s what we want of each other. Just come back, you’ve got to play, got to wash it. That’s the way it goes. We’ll be all right.”

NOTES: New Jersey recorded their 21st comeback win, tying Dallas and Colorado for the League lead. … Meier has eight goals in March, tied for the most in the NHL with Minnesota Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov. … Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec recorded the 50th and 51st points by a Devils defenseman under the age of 20 this season, which is tied for the second-most in franchise history (1993-94).