Robertson scores hat trick, Stars cruise past Flyers

DALLAS -- Jason Robertson had a hat trick for the Dallas Stars in a 5-1 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at American Airlines Center on Saturday.

Robertson has six goals and nine points during a three-game multipoint streak.

“Maybe I’m shooting the puck a little bit more and being a little bit more assertive on that, but I’ve been getting those chances all season,” Robertson said. “I’m just glad it went in. Obviously, when I get one or two, confidence goes up, shots maybe get a touch harder, a bit more accurate. It’s hockey.”

Roope Hintz had three assists, and Tyler Seguin had a goal and an assist for Dallas (12-4-3), which has won five in a row. Jake Oettinger made 20 saves.

“If you ask [Casey DeSmith] or I, [Robertson] does that to us like every day. Probably the best pure goal-scorer I’ve ever played with,” Oettinger said. “What he does in practice, he’s trying to score goals every shot, which sometimes is annoying, but that’s what makes him so good. His hockey IQ is so smart it’s impressive. When he has swagger and confidence like that, he’s one of the best players in the world.”

Christian Dvorak scored, and Dan Vladar made 23 saves for Philadelphia (9-6-3), which was coming off a 6-5 shootout win at the St. Louis Blues on Friday and had its five-game point streak end (3-0-2).

“I think it’s been kind of a common theme here lately, our starts haven’t been good,” Philadelphia captain Sean Couturier said. “It just makes it harder on us to climb back in every game. There’s no quit, but we just had a third game in four nights, just makes it tougher on us to get back in it.”

Lian Bichsel gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 3:48 of the first period on a shot from the blue line through traffic.

“I’ve been trying to just play my game,” Bichsel said. “I’ve had some chances before that, but I’m happy I got the bounce and scored my first goal of the season. That helped me during the whole game. I had a good feeling today and made some good plays. Since [Thomas Harley] is out, I’m trying to step up and play more minutes.”

Prior to the game, Dallas announced Harley is out week-to-week with a lower-body injury.

"He was dealing with it, he played three or four games with it,” coach Glen Gulutzan said. “It becomes a point right now where you don't want to make the injury worse. It's the smartest decision for the athlete just to take that time now and get it dealt with."

Robertson made it 2-0 at 11:39 of the second period when he put a backhand behind Vladar, who had come out to challenge Seguin as the initial puck carrier.

“I know this is a good hockey team, but we just backed in too much,” Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet said. “The second period, other than an unfortunate couple of things, we actually played a good second. But it’s too late, you’re chasing the game. Too many guys are backing into the game and I’ve got to figure out why.”

Robertson scored his second of the period to stretch the lead to 3-0 at 17:02. He spun around at the bottom of the right face-off circle before roofing a wrist shot over Vladar.

“I thought the second period we controlled most of the play, so there are some positives you can take out of that playing a good team. They capitalized on their chances and some of our mistakes that we need to clean up,” Philadelphia defenseman Travis Sanheim said. “Obviously a tough back-to-back. Learn from it and try to grow as a team.”

Robertson completed the hat trick with a power-play goal to extend the lead to 4-0 at 9:29 of the third period.

“Early we were kind of not supporting each other, and that kind of goes into, you know, the 50-50 battles. If you have close support, it makes it a little bit easier, you’re talking to your teammates, so we’re just kind of leaving guys on islands and not supporting, especially early in games,” Philadelphia forward Noah Cates said.

“Seems like the past, you know, two, three, four games, our starts have been a little off. So, just got to be consistent, play a full 60, support and be disciplined, be detailed for the whole game.”

Dvorak scored on a backhand as he skated across the crease to cut the lead to 4-1 at 10:57.

Seguin scored on a wrist shot from the left face-off dot to make it 5-1 at 13:51.

“I would say this was probably our most complete game from start to finish of the season,” Gulutzan said. “With everything we’ve been trying to do here, I think we’re building into a well-rounded group right now.”