Stars rally late in 3rd, defeat Penguins in shootout to extend point streak to 10

DALLAS -- Miro Heiskanen scored the game-tying goal with 1:49 remaining in the third period for the Dallas Stars, who rallied for a 3-2 shootout win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at American Airlines Center on Sunday.

Heiskanen tied it 2-2 on a point shot through traffic with Jake Oettinger on the bench for the extra attacker.

“Not our best game for sure, especially first two periods. [Not executing] a lot and not creating a lot, we had three shots in the second period, so they were obviously playing better than us. But that’s what happens sometimes," Stars forward Mikko Rantanen said. "They’re a good team, they’ve got some good players. [Oettinger] made some big saves and in the third, we get a big one from Miro and find a way again.

"You don’t remember these games in a couple of weeks, you just remember the two points. So, we’ll take it.”

Jamie Benn and Rantanen also scored for the Stars (20-5-5), who have won three in a row and extended their point streak to 10 games (8-0-2). Oettinger made 27 saves.

“I thought they were better than us 5-on-5, especially in that second period. We actually didn’t generate a ton,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “A 6-on-5 goal, which happens. If you look back, for me, just rationalizing things in my own mind, usually this league evens everything out. We’ve had a couple of games at home where I thought we should have won and we lost in overtime. Today, 5-on-5 they were better than us and we got the points. We’ll take it and try to get better.”

Connor Dewar and Tommy Novak scored for the Penguins (14-7-6), who are 4-1-1 in their past six games. Tristan Jarry made 21 saves.

“You walk away disappointed based on that game. I thought the overall game that we played, we want to come away with two points. Once we look at it, get a little bit removed from it, I think we’ll see that there was a lot of positives,” Penguins coach Dan Muse said. “Those points are important and there’s some things that obviously we could have done too that could have secured those two points.”

Forward Matt Duchene and defenseman Nils Lundkvist each returned to the Stars' lineup after missing extensive time due to injuries. Duchene (concussion) had been out since Oct. 18, and Lundkvist (lower body) had been out since Oct. 16.

“Way more fun to be a part of it and being on the ice and being on the bench than sitting in the room and watching the guys battle. Good to be back,” Lundkvist said. “It’s been tough for sure with the injury last year that ended my season and then coming back, I feel like it was a pretty good start to the year. We were rolling pretty good and then kind of a freak accident keeps you out 7 1/2 weeks, and all of a sudden you miss 25 games because of the schedule.”

Dewar gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 18:18 of the first period on a one-timer from the high slot that beat Oettinger five-hole.

Benn tied it 1-1 at 1:27 of the second period when Roope Hintz fed him a no-look, cross-ice pass for a snap shot in the high slot.

“Guys are playing great. I think there’s that added pressure of coming in and trying not to mess it up,” Duchene said. “I remember feeling like that my first 10 games when I got here, when I signed here. Felt a little bit fish out of water, took me a little while to figure out how to get back. It was kind of a similar feeling like that but in a different way. I’m still getting used to the way we’re playing because it’s new. I’ve only played 3 1/2 games before tonight, so there’s a little bit of that too.”

Novak gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead at 5:56 when he deflected Kris Letang's shot from the point in the low slot.

“Obviously, [points in] five of six is pretty good, you know, we’d love to have that one being up late. I think we did some good things tonight and I hope we can carry those on and learn from our mistakes too,” Novak said. “I think we played two pretty good games [on the road trip]. I think the first and the third, just try to keep our consistency. I think we’ve shown that we can play with anybody. That’s a good team tonight, again, so when we’re playing our best, we’re tough to beat.”