Wyatt Johnston dishes three assists in Stars' 4-0 shutout of Sabres

Wyatt Johnston did not put a puck in the net Thursday, and he still finished among the game's most productive Stars.

The Dallas forward recorded three assists in a 4-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center, including the primary pass on Roope Hintz's power-play goal that finally broke Dallas's man-advantage drought. Jake Oettinger stopped 26 shots for his second straight shutout as the Stars improved to 2-2-0.

Hintz's goal at 15:34 of the second period made it 4-0. He took Johnston's pass in the right circle and put it top corner on the far side of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. It was Dallas's first power-play goal of the season after the Stars had gone 0-for-9 with the extra attacker.

Buffalo entered the night 0-for-13 on its own power play to start the year and remained scoreless with the man advantage.

Assists across the night

Johnston's other helpers came as Dallas built the lead in front of him. Jason Robertson opened the scoring at 9:03 of the first on a 2-on-1 with Mikko Rantanen.

Sam Steel made it 2-0 at 9:36 of the second from high in the slot, and Rantanen scored at 13:57 when a Nils Lundkvist point shot bounced off the boards for a backhand into an open net. Rantanen finished with a goal and three assists of his own; Steel and Robertson supplied the other even-strength tallies before Johnston and Hintz solved the power play.

NHL.com's game notes framed Hintz's finish as the season's first conversion for a unit that had been searching. Johnston's feed from the right side gave Hintz a shooting lane to the far post, and the puck found the top corner.

Stacking connected hockey

Coach Glen Gulutzan said he liked how the defensemen moved the puck and how the forwards worked to spots. "I just like the game all of our guys are giving us right now," Gulutzan said. "Our 'D' has been moving the puck great the last couple games, and our forwards are working to spots for them.

So we're a little connected. We've just got to keep stacking here."

Hintz described the same approach from inside the forward group: trust instincts, play quick, and take the play when it is there. Rantanen pointed to skating over the last two games as the reason Dallas has looked faster through the first two periods.

Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said starts and finishing early chances remain the problem after the Sabres trailed by multiple goals for a third straight game. Luukkonen finished with 14 saves and said allowing four goals is not a winning formula regardless of how the plays develop.

Johnston's three-assist night was the connective tissue. He helped create the power-play breakthrough that had eluded Dallas through nine previous tries, and he stayed on the scoresheet while Oettinger and the skaters in front of him closed out another shutout on the road.

Sources

nhl.com

The Associated Press