Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Rookie Wyatt Johnston scored the go-ahead goal on the power play with five minutes remaining and Roope Hintz scored twice as the Dallas Stars rallied from a 2-0 second-period deficit to defeat the visiting Montreal Canadiens 4-2 on Friday night.
Johnston, a 19-year-old center who was the 23rd pick of the 2021 NHL Draft by the Stars, fired a shot from the slot that ricocheted right back to him and he buried the rebound into a wide-open right side of the net for his 10th goal of the season. The game winner also extended his goal streak to three games.
Hintz scored two power-play goals, Joel Kiviranta had an empty-net goal and Jason Robertson added two assists for Dallas, which enters the three-day holiday break with a three-point lead over the second-place Winnipeg Jets in the Central Division. Jake Oettinger finished with 22 saves for the Stars.
Michael Pezzetta had a goal and an assist and Jake Evans also scored for the Canadiens. Jake Allen stopped 32 of 35 shots.
Montreal, which entered the contest just 1-for-30 on the power play over its last nine games, took a 1-0 lead at the 4:04 mark on a power-play goal by Evans. Pezzetta hit Evans with a short pass in the slot and Evans then split defensemen Esa Lindell and Jani Hakanpaa before cutting to his right and firing a wrist shot inside the right post for his first goal in 34 games this season.
The Canadiens extended their lead to 2-0 early in the second period on Pezzetta’s second goal of the season on a wrist shot from the left circle that clanged off the crossbar and into the goal.
Dallas cut it to 2-1 at the 15:19 mark of the second period on a power-play goal by Hintz, who deflected a Jason Robertson shot over Allen’s right shoulder.
The Stars tied it at the 2:27 mark of the third period on another power-play goal by Hintz, who deflected Robertson’s wrist shot from the slot through Allen’s pads for his 16th goal of the season, setting the stage for Johnston’s game-winner.
–Field Level Media