Rantanen has goal, 2 assists, Stars top Sharks to extend point streak to 9

DALLAS -- Mikko Rantanen had a goal and two assists for the Dallas Stars, who extended their point streak to nine games with a 4-1 win against the San Jose Sharks at American Airlines Center on Friday.

“I asked him, I wasn’t quite sure if he was chasing the point lead or the penalty minute lead. He had a little laugh there,” Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said of Rantanen, who took three penalties in the game. “He’s competitive. He does great things and we don’t want him in the box those six minutes a night, but it happens sometimes.”

Sam Steel broke a tie midway through the third period, and Jason Robertson and Miro Heiskanen also scored for the Stars (19-5-5), who have gone 7-0-2 in their past nine. Wyatt Johnston had two assists, and Jake Oettinger made 16 saves.

Collin Graf scored for the Sharks (13-13-3), who lost their second in a row after alternating wins and losses in their previous eight games. Yaroslav Askarov made 20 saves.

“I mean we had chances right, two power plays there, but we didn’t get anything out of them, momentum or anything, that can’t happen in this game,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said.

Jeff Skinner returned for San Jose after missing the past 10 games with a lower-body injury.

“I feel fine. Obviously, we would like to have a better result, but I feel fine,” Skinner said. “It’s a good team, there’s not a lot of space, couldn’t really get to the inside much. They closed the lanes up and were blocking shots. I thought as the game went on, we got better. I thought we had some looks on the power play, we just couldn’t find it when we needed it.”

Robertson’s power-play goal gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 14:20 of the first period when he backhanded in a rebound from the left side of the net. It was his 15th goal in the past 13 games.

“I think we just kind of played a mature game,” Stars forward Justin Hryckowian said. “We didn’t want to get into a back-and-forth game, wanted to get some [offensive] zone time and kind of low event a little bit to start. I thought we did that and just kind of built on our game as we went.”

Graf tied it 1-1 at 8:23 of the second period, capitalizing on a rebound in a net-front scramble.

“I mean it can’t really get worse than the Washington game (a 7-1 loss on Wednesday), so I thought for the most part we battled with [the Stars], just a couple mistakes and didn’t get the result. But a loss is a loss, and we got to get back in the win column,” Graf said. “Obviously, things weren’t going our way the last game, and we weren’t generating a whole lot today, so I think it’s just trying to get puck to the net and sometimes the bounces are with you.”

Steel gave the Stars a 2-1 lead at 10:56 of the third after he poked in his own rebound from the right of the goal.

“I think our structures, our systems, everyone's thinking the same thing, everyone's on the same page,” Dallas defenseman Alexander Petrovic said. “That helps. Everyone knows their job. So, it's whether our legs aren't there one night or they are just still doing the same things, maybe at a different pace. But I think guys are good at realizing maybe keep it a little more simple and just stick with it.”

Rantanen extended it to 3-1 at 16:39 on a shot from the bottom of the right face-off circle into the far upper corner of the net.

“We’ve been playing a lot of games. For the most part, our structure was pretty good,” Steel said. “We don’t give up too much even though they might have some [offensive] zone time. Nothing crazy dangerous. We just stuck with it and came out with [the win] in the end.”

Macklin Celebrini appeared to score at 17:20 to bring the Sharks within one, but the play was overturned after the Stars successfully challenged for offside.

“I thought we did some good stuff,” Sharks defenseman Timothy Liljegren said. “Obviously it was a close game there until they scored their second, thought we came out a little flat in the first, but came back in the second but obviously lost in the third. I felt like it was a pretty close game up until, obviously, they scored a couple late there in the third. It was for sure better, but I think it's a process and we can still play a lot better.”

NOTES: Robertson scored his 186th career goal and passed Bobby Smith for sole possession of 12th most in Stars/North Stars history. … Rantanen recorded his 200th career multipoint game and became the fourth Finnish player to reach the milestone. He joined Jari Kurri (385 multipoint games), Teemu Selanne (382) and Aleksander Barkov (209).