Oettinger makes 13 saves, Stars shut out Celebrini-less Sharks

DALLAS -- Jake Oettinger made 13 saves for the Dallas Stars, who earned their first win of the season with a 5-0 victory against the San Jose Sharks at American Airlines Center on Monday.

It was Oettinger's 17th career shutout.

“Anytime you get a shutout in the NHL it’s fun,” Oettinger said. “Now guys are so skilled and so smart, turning down good looks to try to make a great look, so that’s what you’re going to have to get used to as a goalie now in this league. I feel like the volume isn’t going to be as high, it’s going to be more quality over quantity.”

Jamie Benn and Jason Robertson each had a goal and an assist, and Joel Kiviranta, Mikko Rantanen, and Miro Heiskanen also scored for Dallas (1-2-0). Roope Hintz had two assists.

“We established more zone time and played more direct, forward, and cleaned up our blue lines,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “It’s a really simple recipe, and it’s good that they got rewarded for it.

“It’s just a simple recipe. It’s the best league in the world, but it’s also the simplest league in the world. We’re playing a young team that’s on the rise, and one way to slow them down is to just grind and play in that zone and force them to defend. That slows them down, and I thought our guys did a good job of that tonight.”

Yaroslav Askarov made 21 saves for San Jose (2-1-0), which played without captain Macklin Celebrini, who was a late scratch with a lower-body injury.

"Obviously, (Celebrini) didn't play tonight," Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. "We'll evaluate tonight and tomorrow and see where he's at.

"He's still being evaluated."

Heiskanen opened the scoring at 18:51 of the first period. Askarov thought he controlled Benn's initial shot, but Hintz knocked the rebound off the end boards to Heiskanen, who finished the play by banking in a backhand off Sharks defenseman Dmitry Orlov and the right pad of the goaltender.

“I knew the goalie wasn’t ready there,” Heiskanen said. “I tried to hit somewhere, hit the defenseman or someone. I tried to hit the goalie, but you know, lucky bounce, and it went in.”

Kiviranta made it 2-0 at 3:17 of the second period, banking another puck from below the goal line in off Askarov’s pad. Oskar Back took the initial shot from the low slot, but it deflected off Jacob Trouba, and Kiviranta sent the puck back toward the crease and the prone goaltender.

“Pinballing around, obviously,” San Jose defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “Some weird bounces, but as defenders you try to clean up what you can in front. Just some odd bounces, that’s all.”

Benn pushed the lead to 3-0 at 6:19, jamming a shot in near the left post after Robertson sent him a touch pass between his legs from below the goal line.

“(Benn) has been the leading scorer of this league,” Gulutzan said. “You could see on that one little play with (Robertson) behind the net that they were in sync. They both knew what the little play was, and it goes in the net. That might look like a little thing, but that’s a big thing. That’s two hockey IQ players reading off each other.”

Robertson then made it 4-0 at 16:30 of the second. He buried a wrist shot blocker side from the slot after gloving down a clearing attempt from Sam Dickinson at the right point.

Rantanen closed the scoring at 15:22 of the third period on a wrist shot from the left circle.

“I didn’t mind our first ten minutes. I thought we did some good things, and then it went south from there,” Warsofsky said. “We just couldn’t get any traction. Obviously, taking penalties, going on the penalty kill early. When a team like that starts getting their touches, they start feeling good about themselves. Obviously put us on our heels quick.”

NOTES: Sharks forward Ty Dellandrea drew into the lineup for Celebrini. He was minus-2 in 14:20 of ice time in his season debut. ... It was the first goal of the season for Benn, Robertson and Rantanen. ... The Stars extended their point streak against the Sharks to 10 games (9-0-1).