The Dallas Stars turned the game on its head in a hurry in a 4-0 against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Thursday.

Stars lines

• Steel – Johnston – Rantanen
• Robertson – Hintz – Benn
• Hryckowian – Hyry – Seguin
• Bäck – Faksa – Kiviranta

• Lindell – Heiskanen
• Harley – Lundkvist
• Bichsel – Myers  

• Oettinger
• DeSmith

Scratches: Capobianco, Duchene (injured), Blackwell (injured)

2-on-1’s for days

The Stars did not look clean early in the game tonight. Buffalo was on its toes, and Dallas was feeding the puck right back consistently.

The most egregious turnover came off the stick of Thomas Harley, who did not recognize the forecheck and somehow let the puck just slide right off his stick in an exchange with Jake Oettinger. Buffalo jumped all over it in the low slot, and Oettinger had to make a big save.

It wasn’t the only save Oettinger made either.

Tage Thompson walked into the slot and unleashed his massively powerful wrist shot from between the circles, leading to a big rebound in a high-danger area. Wyatt Johnston was aware of his surroundings, though, and lifted the Sabres stick before they could get to the rebound.

Big play. Because after that, Dallas stole momentum and opened the scoring despite getting outplayed and not having much offensive possession time at all.

The goal was a pretty simple recipe. Eh? See what I did there? Buffalo loves to jump up in the play, and do they ever jump up on this sequence? Rasmus Dahlin and four of his comrades end up in the Stars’ offensive-zone circle while the puck went the other way.

Mikko Rantanen had no trouble legging this up to Jason Robertson, who walked in and easily picked his spot on Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. I think Mattias Samuelsson would like to play this one differently. I know it’s two superstars, but letting Robertson walk down the slot on his weak side and shoot from basically the inside part of the circle is not going to work.

Robertson scored his second in two games. Will he score 50?

Another, much funnier 2-on-1 came later in the period. Dallas once again caught Buffalo committing too hard to the puck. Beck Malenstyn didn’t look around and recognize the danger behind him, the Sabres sent four at the puck, and Colin Blackwell and Esa Lindell got a settled 2-on-1 from the blue line in.

Unfortunately for Samuelsson, he didn’t defend this very well again, committing over to Blackwell but missing the puck as he dropped down the ice. Blackwell used his patented backhand toe drag to get to the middle of the ice and got a good chance on Luukkonen. Radek Faksa got a chance on the rebound that dribbled wide.

Shutting the door… on one end, at least

Oettinger has not allowed a goal in six periods. In fact, his last goal against came just over 13 minutes into the second period of opening night.

Sure, he hasn’t had to be absolutely stellar. But he has made the saves he is supposed to make, overcame a lot of downtime against San Jose, and has been big all night in Buffalo. Specifically, Oettinger has been quick to attack pucks and use his body to cut down angles. That’s usually a telltale sign of him being on his game, rather than playing deep in his net and trying to react.

Here are his biggest saves of the night, so far.

On the other end, UPL has not quite put up the same performance. He has struggled to see pucks through traffic, especially on the 2-0 goal by Sam Steel.

If he saw this, it’s bad. If he didn’t see it, it’s still kind of bad. Steel will take it.

Clever, eh?

Then the Stars really started to take over, especially turning pucks over on Buffalo’s breakouts. The Sabres haven’t looked clean all game, but they really started to burp pucks up and play sloppy in their own end in the second period.

Rantanen was the beneficiary of a wacky bounce off the end boards that landed right on his backhand, though he still had to tuck it in under a stick and did so ever so smoothly.

But let’s talk about Roope Hintz.

Hintz, when he is going, is one of the most dominant players in the league. There are only a handful of guys who can keep up with him, and he showed that speed when he burst through the middle onto a breakaway off a crisp pass by Johnston.

Shortly after, Johnston again found Hintz, this time after he and Rantanen drew three penalty killers off the rush. Hintz quickly gathered the puck in, opened his hips to get a shooting angle, and ripped one past the blocker of UPL.

What a shot. Hintz has been the best player on the ice.

Dallas is all over Buffalo. Point night in upstate NY.

A nothing burger, and that’s just dandy

Nothing much happened in the third period. And for Dallas, that’s just fine.

Maybe they would’ve liked to push a bit more than the two shots they mustered up in the final period. But honestly, they just shored up their defense, smothered Buffalo, and coasted off to a 4-0 win in Buffalo. Roll four lines and move on to Pittsburgh.

They were the better team in the game. They are the better team. And the fans headed early to the exits, perhaps with Brat Tricks in hand.

Which of these do you like?

Random thoughts from Sam’s brain

• Wyatt Johnston made a great play to get a stick lift in the slot on a huge rebound off the pad of Oettinger. His hockey mind and awareness of what is around him are elite.
• Arttu Hyry takes his faceoffs left-handed when on his weak side. Justin Hryckowian got booted from the left dot, and Hyry won it clean with his off hand down low on the blade like he does so well.
• Lian Bichsel has had a lot of trouble moving the puck quickly enough out of his own zone to start the season. He gets the puck along the wall with just a second to make a quick read and play, usually the simple one of reversing it or getting it up the wall. Instead, he takes that second to hold onto the puck, and by the time he looks up, the forecheck is right there and he is usually outnumbered. Leads to turnovers.
• Buffalo is pressuring the Dallas power play all over the ice. The Stars are actually beating the PK with puck movement, but just can’t get the last pass to connect or simply shoot the puck. Big difference between Miro Heiskanen and Thomas Harley shows up here. Heiskanen looks for that extra pass, Harley shoots.
• Roope Hintz can flat out fly. Johnston hit him with a simple hard pass through the middle off a center-ice PP faceoff, and Hintz screamed down the middle on a breakaway.
• Hintz used Thompson as a screen perfectly, shooting past his trailing leg and hitting the crossbar right past Luukkonen’s ear.
• It’s amazing to see how many players are drawn to Rantanen and Johnston when they carry the puck in the offensive zone. No wonder they rack up so many points. If they just move the puck quick, they will have numbers on the backside.
• Oettinger has been excellent at attacking pucks in tight and cutting down angles. He made two huge saves on Zach Benson in tight with the stretched left pad.
• Would you eat the Brat Burger?
• Oettinger finished the game with his second consecutive shutout. He has not allowed a goal in 146:55, which ranks 10th in franchise history. Ben Bishop holds the franchise record with 233:04 in 2018-19, while Oettinger’s best was 154:20 in 2023-24.

This is awesome: