Robertson scores natural hat trick, Stars hold off late Oilers rally

EDMONTON -- Jason Robertson scored a natural hat trick in the second period for the Dallas Stars, who held on for a 4-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Wednesday.

It was Robertson’s second hat trick of the season and fifth in the NHL.

“At the end of the day, we won. That’s the best part,” Robertson said. “It was definitely a stressful moment, but it was one of the few times these past weeks where we had a big lead going into the third period, and I wouldn’t say we took our foot off the gas, but we got in penalty trouble and then their crowd came alive and their players started to feel it.

“We were able to survive, but we definitely don’t want to repeat that again.”

Wyatt Johnston also scored, Roope Hintz had three assists, and Thomas Harley had two assists for the Stars (46-21-4), who have won three in a row and extended their point streak to six games (4-0-2). Jake Oettinger made 41 saves.

Dallas moved five points ahead of the Colorado Avalanche for second in the Central Division.

“It’s a hard league to win in, and I haven’t had many disappointing wins in my career, but this would be one of them,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “I thought we played a really immature, sloppy game tonight, especially in the first and third.

“It’s concerning. It’s late in the season and playoffs are around the corner. It’s a concerning trend here lately.”

Corey Perry and Adam Henrique each had a goal and an assist for the Oilers (41-25-5), who had their five-game point streak end (4-0-1) and remained two points behind the Los Angeles Kings for second in the Pacific Division.

Stuart Skinner allowed four goals on 21 shots before leaving at 6:34 of the third period after he was inadvertently kneed in the head by Mikko Rantanen. Calvin Pickard stopped all three shots he faced in relief.

It was the second time in less than a week that Skinner didn’t finish a game. He was pulled for concussion protocol in the third period of a 4-3 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets last Thursday following a collision in the crease with forward Gabriel Vilardi.

“I anticipate him not traveling (to their game at the Seattle Kraken on Thursday),” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Obviously concerned about him. He’ll be looked after and we’ll find out exactly tomorrow what the situation is.”

The Oilers were also missing both Connor McDavid (lower-body injury) and Leon Draisaitl (undisclosed) for the second game in a row.

“I didn’t really see us being down 4-0, but we made some costly mistakes that gave them good opportunities,” Knoblauch said. “But I thought we did a lot of good things, and we’ve got to work like that for us to have any success. And for the most part, these two games without our two top centers, I think our guys have done that.”

Johnston put Dallas ahead 1-0 at 14:26 of the first period, scoring over Skinner's glove on a breakaway after Jamie Benn's stretch pass to the offensive blue line hit off the boards and bounced behind Edmonton's defense.

Robertson made it 2-0 at 5:01 of the second period with his 30th goal of the season. Rantanen sent a sliding backhand pass to Hintz at the edge of the crease. Hintz then tried to send his own backhand pass to Robertson, but the puck deflected to the right of the crease, where Robertson tapped it past the outstretched glove of Skinner.

Robertson extended the lead to 3-0 at 10:42. After getting sprung on a 2-on-1 by Hintz, he elected to shoot and scored five-hole on Skinner from the left circle.

Robertson then made it 4-0 at 15:30 with a power-play goal, redirecting Harley's shot from above the circles past Skinner’s glove.

Perry made it 4-1 at 9:30 of the third period with a power-play goal. Jake Walman's slap shot caromed back off the end boards to the left post, where Perry knocked it in past Oettinger.

Henrique got the Oilers to within 4-2 with another power-play goal at 13:54. He scored short side with a one-timer from the left circle off a pass from Perry.

Zach Hyman cut it to 4-3 with 1:25 remaining, knocking in the rebound of Evan Bouchard's point shot with Pickard pulled for the extra skater.

“They’re a good team. They know how to play, they’re skilled, they’re quick,” Perry said. “They took advantage and we got down, but after the second, we never said die.

“We just came back and pushed for one and went from there. I thought we battled hard at the end.”

NOTE: Robertson is the sixth player in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history to have three 30-goal seasons at the age of 25 or younger, joining Brian Bellows (five), Mike Modano (four), Steve Payne (four), Tyler Seguin (three) and Dino Ciccarelli (three).