Seventh heaven: Stars tie franchise record with win over Golden Knights

DALLAS --Entering the final chapter of what had been nothing short of an incredible four-game stay at American Airlines Center, the Dallas Stars hadn't had much luck against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Since an opening night defeat in 2017 -- the inaugural game in Vegas franchise history -- the Stars had mustered only one win in six tries versus the group from Sin City, and saw themselves swept in three meetings last season.
These days, though, the Stars don't need much luck. Quite simply they're, well, just reallygood.

WATCH: [All highlights from Stars' win over Golden Knights]
Alexander Radulov scored a pair of power-play goals, John Klingberg chipped in three assists and Dallas kept rolling to its team record-tying seventh straight victory with a 4-2 triumph over the Golden Knights.

The Stars (15-8-2) haven't lost in regulation since Oct. 26 against Pittsburgh -- yes, that was 30days ago. They're 14-1-1 in their last 16 games and continue to ride a seemingly never-ending point streak that currently stands at 12 games as they hit the road for a quick stop in Chicago on Tuesday.
Not too shabby, eh?
"We've really matured throughout the year," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said of his team, which started the season 1-7-1. "This win streak, and I guess this run we've been on, we don't want to get too excited and pat ourselves on the back because we've got to continue to get better. There are certain parts of our game that need to be better, but there is a lot of confidence on the bench and a lot of different people stepping up and saying the right things.
"They're pushing each other, which is nice to see."

Dallas scored twice in the first period. Radulov got the Stars on the board first, deflecting home a wrister from Klingberg in front of the net at the 13:23 mark. Esa Lindell, who was dynamite on the penalty kill all night, followed less then two minutes later, taking a great cross-ice pass from Andrew Cogliano and depositing it behind Vegas' Malcolm Subban.
The Stars ran into trouble when they were whistled four times for penalties in the second. They killed them all, but Shea Theodore slipped a shot past Ben Bishop seconds after the fourth call -- a high-sticking minor on Tyler Seguin -- expired to cut the deficit to one.
Jason Dickinson then notched his fourth goal of the season, scoring on a feed from Radulov in the waning minutes of the middle frame. But Paul Stastny answered for Vegas to open the third to make it 3-2.
Radulov made sure that's as close as the Golden Knights would get.

Ten seconds into the Stars' fourth man-advantage opportunity of the night after Cody Glass was penalized for hooking, the energetic winger picked up a rebound from Klingberg and whipped it into the back of the net to put Vegas away for good.
"I think that shows the confidence we have right now," Lindell said. "We are feeling really good and that shows that, even though they get a goal, we can come back and bounce and put it to their end and get goals like that. So, it is huge."
Speaking of good, how about those Stars?
"It's fun, but, I mean, we still think there's stuff to work on," Klingberg said. "That's the good thing, but we keep rolling, we have good confidence, we play the right way. We feel like we get results from that. So, we've got to keep doing the right thing here and keep building."

Fast facts

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They said it

"Just working. We knew that they were good at special teams. Those were the keys we were talking about before the game. Probably whoever was going to win the special teams game was going to have more of a chance to win the hockey game. That's what we did, and everybody was working hard."
-- Radulov on the Stars' power-play success against Vegas
"Esa is probably our best penalty killer because he logs so many minutes. He wins so many battles. I thought that early on we gave up too many easy entries, but then we cleaned it up. Bish was really good again and the four guys were working together cohesively and clearing pucks."
-- Montgomery on Lindell and the team's penalty kill

Up next

The Stars head to Chicago for the second half of their back-to-back against the Blackhawks (9-9-5) on Tuesday night at 7 (NBCSN; KTCK 1310-AM, 96.7-FM). Dallas edged the Blackhawks 2-1 in a shootout on Saturday at American Airlines Center.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Jeff Odom is the manager of DallasStars.com and writes about the Stars/NHL. Follow him on Twitter @jeffodom.