Jason Robertson scored with 29.6 seconds remaining in overtime, John Klingberg tallied three assists and Jamie Benn had two as the visiting Dallas Stars erased a late two-goal deficit to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-4 on Monday night in the regular season finale.
In a meeting of teams not going to the playoffs, Dallas outshot Chicago 50-23, eventually breaking through against Chicago goaltender Collin Delia, who made 45 saves.
The Blackhawks had the benefit of a 4-on-3 advantage for the majority of overtime, as the Stars’ Radek Faksa was whistled for a high sticking double minor at 19:39 of the third period, but were unable to capitalize.
Dallas (23-19-14, 60 points) netted the game-winner as Robertson scored on the rebound of a Benn shot as the Stars moved out in transition.
Chicago (24-25-7, 55 points) squandered three two-goal leads. The final instance came midway through the third period, as Dallas’ Joel Kiviranta and Jason Dickinson scored 1:54 apart to tie the game at 4.
Alex DeBrincat, Pius Suter, Dylan Strome and Vinnie Hinostroza each had a goal and an assist for the Blackhawks.
Jake Oettinger had 19 saves for the Stars.
DeBrincat opened the scoring just 53 seconds into the game, capitalizing on a Stars turnover and beating Oettinger with a backhand.
DeBrincat netted his team-high 32nd goal while becoming the first player to register a goal in each of his club’s last seven regular season games since 1985, when John Anderson did the trick for Toronto.
Just 29 seconds later, DeBrincat assisted on Suter’s goal, providing Chicago with a two-goal cushion that held up until Joe Pavelski got Dallas on the board at 15:30 of the first period.
The Blackhawks took a 3-1 lead on just their 10th shot of the game, as Strome scored on a 2-on-0 with Hinostroza that followed Miro Heiskanen’s drive off the post at the other end moments earlier.
Heiskanen persevered at 19:58 of the period, however, drawing a penalty and scoring on the power play just three seconds into the man advantage to cut deficit to 3-2.
–Field Level Media