Heika’s Take: Robertson’s hat trick helps Stars hold on in wacky 6-5 win over Capitals

The Stars played a game filled with crooked numbers on Tuesday, but the most important digit was a mark in the win column.

In getting the third fastest natural hat trick in franchise history from Jason Robertson, Mikko Rantanen’s 800th career point, and another win for Jake Oettinger against Washington (7-0-0 in his career), you would have thought that Dallas had a banner night in the Nation’s Capital. But the Lads in Victory Green had to hang on for a 6-5 win that was both exciting and nerve-wracking.

“You’re going to win all different ways and that’s how we won tonight,” said Robertson, who scored three goals in a span of 5:20 in the second period.

Only Tom McCarthy (5:15 in 1984) and Jamie Benn (5:17 in 2018) did it faster in the franchise’s history. The three goals put Robertson at 8 on the season, tied for the team lead with Rantanen, and closer to the pace that landed him at 45 goals last season.

The Stars as a team moved to 9-5-1 with a .633 points percentage that puts them third in the Central Division.

That’s a pretty good place when you consider this has been an inconsistent season that has included several injuries. Defenseman Miro Heiskanen left the game in the second period with an upper body injury and his status will be updated on Wednesday when the team practices in Columbus. That’s kind of just what this season has been.

“We have played roller coaster hockey lately, so we tried to keep pushing and get our game going,” Joel Kiviranta said after his goal opened the scoring against a hard-pushing Washington team.

The Capitals are sitting 8-6-0 and were coming off a lopsided loss to Minnesota, so they pushed hard early. Dallas was able to hold the fort defensively, and then Radek Faksa and Kivranta combined to score on the team’s first shot of the game.

“That kind of helped us get going and weather the storm,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “We gave up some zone time and you could see their push, so giving up that first goal…it’s tough, it was a setback for them.”

Dallas then drew a power play to start the second period and Robertson went to work. He walked up the left wing and pushed a shot in just 23 seconds into the period. He followed that up with a great side-step and snipe from the right side a few minutes later and then capped the trick with a shot from the left point. It was clear this was “Robo doing Robo things,” as Kiviranta put it.

“A couple of times you’re just feeling it and you stick with it. It’s nice when it goes in,” Robertson said. “It just happened so quickly, you didn’t even have time to digest it.”

Dallas stretched the lead to 5-1 on a Rantanen goal midway through the period, but then Washington closed that to 5-3 by the second intermission. Hintz made it 6-3, but the Capitals scored twice more and the Stars had to hold on for dear life in the final minute.

“You never apologize for winning, but there are obviously some areas where we can improve,” Robertson said. “It’s tough to win on the road, so you take what you can get.”

Dallas is now 9-1-0 in its past 10 games against the Capitals, but is less dominant in the smaller picture. The Stars are 2-2-0 in the past four, and the wins were both sort of wonky at times. So getting some consistency is in order.

“We knew this was a big boy game, a heavy game, and that’s their push,” Gulutzan said. “You’ve got two really good teams and it’s hard to dominate a game for 60 minutes. It was a back and forth game and their push came in the third.”

That also was when the Stars were missing Heiskanen, so his health will play a big role in hopefully finding that consistency.

"We're going to have him evaluated again,” Gulutzan said. “We're hoping right now that it's not as serious as we first thought, so we'll know more tomorrow. I think a little bit more about how he wakes up. So we'll re-evaluate then.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.