Jason Robertson capped his first NHL hat trick with 30 seconds remaining in overtime and the visiting Dallas Stars won their third in a row, 4-3 over the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night.
Picking the puck up off the far boards, Robertson skated in alone and beat Winnipeg goaltender Connor Hellebuyck (30 saves) on his right side to push the Stars to 13-4-1 since Jan. 20.
Robertson increased his team-leading and career-high goal total to 26, Denis Gurianov also scored and Ryan Suter notched two assists for the Stars. Joe Pavelski recorded his 900th career point and Braden Holtby made 39 saves as Dallas finished 3-0-1 in the season series against Winnipeg.
Paul Stastny scored twice for the Jets, who had won two in a row following an 0-3-1 slide.
With the Jets down 2-1 after two periods, Kyle Connor tied the game 1:21 into the third, when he knocked in the rebound of an Evgeny Svechnikov shot for his 33rd goal. Then with 7:41 left in regulation, Stastny scored to give Winnipeg its first lead of the night, pushing in Blake Wheeler’s perfectly placed pass from behind the Stars’ net.
However, Dallas tied at 3-3 with 4:32 remaining. With Hellebuyck screened by Robertson, he didn’t see Gurianov’s drive from inside the blue line.
Pavelski recorded his milestone point 5:23 into the contest. He got the puck to Robertson, who unleashed some nifty stick work in front of Hellebuyck before scoring for a 1-0 Dallas lead.
It stayed that way until the second period. Minutes after the Jets had a power-play goal rightfully overturned following video review, Stastny leveled the game at 1-1 with 6:22 left in the period — on Winnipeg’s sixth man advantage of the night.
Dallas regained the lead with 50.2 seconds remaining in the middle frame. After Winnipeg’s Nikolaj Ehlers fell, the Stars found themselves with a three-on-one surge that concluded with Robertson going forehand-backhand before sliding the puck past Hellebuyck.
Dallas played Friday night without a couple of key contributors, veteran forward Tyler Seguin and defenseman Miro Heiskanen. Both were sidelined due to non-COVID-related illnesses.
–Field Level Media