The Dallas Stars continued their hot streak out of the gate, shutting out the New York Islanders 3-0 Saturday. And Stars goalie Jake Oettinger was in peak condition.
After winning their first game of the 2024-25 regular season in a victory over the Nashville Predators Thursday, the Dallas Stars improved to 2-0-0 with a 3-0 win over the New York Islanders. And front-and-center in the win was Dallas star goalie Jake Oettinger, who turned aside all 34 shots he faced Saturday.
Stars right winger Tyler Seguin posted two goals in the win, and linemate Mason Marchment chipped in a pair of primary assists. But this was Oettinger's night to shine, and the 25-year-old netminder was named the first star of the game as he improved his individual numbers to include a 1.51 goals-against average and .957 save percentage in two games this season. And the shutout was the 11th of Oettinger's five-season NHL career.
“It’s something I don’t take for granted at all,” Oettinger told NHL.com regarding his latest shutout. “You need to get a little lucky and some guys need to help you out. A lot of things need to go right, so I never take them for granted. You just want to get the season going the right way. Good start.”
Stars captain Jamie Benn scored the other goal for Dallas, which put three pucks past Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov on just 24 shots on net. But Benn put all the credit on Oettinger.
“[Oettinger]’s rock-solid and we have a lot of belief in him,” Benn said. “Every night we feel like when we go on the ice we’re going to win because of him.”
Dallas now must turn its attention to the Seattle Kraken for a game on Sunday, and backup netminder Casey DeSmith will get his first start as a Star in that game. But the Stars have to be thrilled to see Oettinger playing in peak form right out of the gate. And Dallas coach Pete DeBoer was happy seeing his team play a low-risk, high-reward game.
“The home opener, your natural reaction as a player is to try and put on a show. I thought we did a good job of playing within ourselves tonight. I don’t think we beat ourselves,” DeBoer said. “That’s a tough team to play against. They play a really structured game, and I thought we played a smart hockey game tonight. We didn’t turn it into a track meet or run-and-gun where everyone was trying to get points and put on a show. This is what it’s about. It’s about winning games.”
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