Stars score 5 straight goals, defeat slumping Blackhawks

CHICAGO -- Matt Duchene and Jamie Benn each had a goal and two assists for the Dallas Stars in a 5-1 win against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Sunday.

Jason Robertson, Evgenii Dadonov and Wyatt Johnston each had a goal and an assist for Dallas (21-13-1). Jake Oettinger made 24 saves.

“Important win for us,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “Got some goals. The right guys scored some goals. We got a power-play goal. I thought Jake was real good in net. Some good things. We’ve got to build on that.”

Connor Bedard scored and Arvid Soderblom made 28 saves for the Blackhawks (12-23-2), who have lost four in a row, including 6-2 to the Buffalo Sabres on Friday in their first game after the Christmas break.

“I don't know,” Chicago forward Teuvo Teravainen said. “It's been tough after a break now, a couple really bad games. Pretty disappointing. I feel like there's been a lot of games something goes wrong and the game starts going the wrong way. I guess we have to figure it out. There's mistakes to be made, and when somebody (makes) a mistake, we just have to get better next shift. Got to be better, everyone.”

Bedard gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead on the power play at 12:20 of the first period when his shot from the left circle deflected in off the stick of Stars forward Sam Steel.

“I think there’s lots to go into the game, but I think offensively he’s doing some good things,” Blackhawks coach Anders Sorensen said of Bedard, who was minus-4. “Today, obviously, he was on for a bunch against, but some of them weren’t necessarily on him. Offensively, he’s playing well. He’s creating a lot. Try to get him on the ice in those situations, get him the puck a lot.”

Benn tied the game 1-1 at 17:12, jamming in the rebound of Dadonov's backhand after a left pad save from Soderblom.

Robertson made it 2-1 at 8:23 of the second period when he walked in from the blue line and scored with a wrist shot from the right face-off circle.

The goal came 12 seconds after Chicago forward Tyler Bertuzzi was assessed a major penalty for elbowing against Colin Blackwell. DeBoer said Blackwell may have ended up with a broken nose.

“Obviously hurt us, they scored right away,” Sorensen said. “But then we did a good job of weathering the rest of that PK out. But it did hurt us a little bit. The third one probably hurt us a little bit more to be honest with you.”

Dadonov scored from the right face-off circle after taking a cross-ice feed from Duchene at 14:46 to push Dallas' lead to 3-1.

Johnston then had a shot from Duchene deflect in off his leg 10 seconds into the third period to make it 4-1. Johnston’s stick had been knocked out of his hand when the puck hit him.

“You see how many goals are scored in this league from right in front of the net,” Johnston said. “It seems a lot of the goals also aren’t going straight in. Yeah, it’s so important to get to the net. It’s the most cliché thing that everyone talks about is getting pucks to the net, but that’s what works. That’s how you’ve got to score goals.”

Duchene made it 5-2 at 2:55, scoring five-hole on the rebound of Johnston's shot.

“We’re trying to keep it simple,” Benn said. “A lot of goals in this league are scored five feet within the net. We found a way to get a couple tonight.”

NOTES: Stars forward Justin Hryckowian played 5:50 in his NHL debut. He was called up from Texas of the American Hockey League after forward Mason Marchment took a puck to the face during the Stars’ 3-2 overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild on Friday. ... The Blackhawks assigned defenseman Kevin Korchinski to Rockford of the AHL and recalled defenseman Wyatt Kaiser.