Oilers stumped by Stars as McDavid held without point for 1st time this season
Dallas defenceman John Klingberg contributes 3 helpers in victory
Red-hot Roope Hintz scored the first of two Dallas power-play goals in the first period, and the Stars handed the Edmonton Oilers just their fifth loss of the season, 4-1 Tuesday night.
His goal came on a twice-deflected shot by John Klingberg, off Alexander Radulov and Hintz in front of the net at 10:59. It was the first of three assists for Klingberg, equalling the total in his 12 previous games this season.
"It was good to see [Klingberg] get on the board on the power play," Stars coach Rick Bowness said. "He was outstanding tonight on both sides of the puck."
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Jason Robertson, Denis Gurianov and Luke Glendening also scored for Dallas, which has won four of five.
Stars goalie Jake Oettinger made 21 saves, improving his record to 3-0 in four games this season. He allowed only a goal by the Oilers' Ryan McLeod in the second period.
"Jake's rock-solid," Bowness said. "He's very calm in the net, there's no rebounds, he reads the plays, swallows the pucks."
Edmonton had a season-low 22 shots on goal, just four by the NHL's top two scorers — Leon Draisaitl (one shot) and Connor McDavid (three) in a combined 41:46.
Bowness explained the defensive success.
"It takes a group of five working together, everyone on the same page. You try to take away the middle of the ice, keep pushing to the outside. You keep them from going through the middle, they'll do a lot of damage."
The Stars ended McDavid's streak of scoring a point in each of his first 17 games.
"We took time and space away from him," Dallas defenceman Miro Heiskanen said. "We played him pretty hard, so it was hard to make plays. We played pretty well against him."
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Oilers coach Dave Tippett said, "We took a couple of penalties, got behind and chased the game. Against a heavy team like that, they're going to play in front of the puck all night."
The third Dallas goal, at 9:27 of the second, wasn't officially on the power play, but Gurianov scored it 4 seconds after Edmonton's third penalty. He skated in from the left, put the puck on his backhand and slid it past Skinner.
In the third period, Glendening redirected Ryan Suter's shot with his stick waist high into net.
Despite end-to-end skating early in the game, neither team put a shot on goal until 6:04 of playing time, when Oettinger stopped a wrist shot by Edmonton's Evan Bouchard. Skinner's first save came 43 seconds later on a tip-in attempt by Hintz.
