Stars blank Rangers, secure No. 2 seed in Central Division

DALLAS -- Jason Robertson broke through a scoreless game late in the third period, and the Dallas Stars secured the second seed in the Central Division with a 2-0 shutout victory against the New York Rangers at American Airlines Center on Saturday.

Dallas also ensured home ice for the Western Conference First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, where it will host the Minnesota Wild.

"It’s a big one. Lately, I think the couple of last games we’ve played well, but before that, we were kind of looking for our game," Stars defenseman Esa Lindell said. "Colorado (on April 4) kind of got away from us, and then Minnesota (on Thursday) got close, so that was a big thing to secure the home ice."

Robertson scored twice, Matt Duchene had two assists, and Jake Oettinger made 22 saves and recorded his fourth shutout of the season for the Stars (48-20-12), who have won four of their past five games.

“It’s tough to get shutouts. It takes the whole team and a lot of guys did a lot of great stuff for me there,” Oettinger said. “All the guys on the 'PK,' it’s not as sexy as the power play, but it’s just as important, and we all take pride in that. There’s like 10 guys going into every game, that’s their job. Especially as a goalie, you can really make a difference on the penalty kill. Three goals in one game on the 'PK' (versus Minnesota on Thursday), you want to bounce back.”

Igor Shesterkin made 17 saves for the Rangers (33-38-9), who are 5-3-0 in their past eight games.

“I thought we were competitive for most of the game. Some of the penalties took the flow of the game out, but I thought we were competitive for most of the game,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “We knew they were a team that has a defensive DNA. They are one of the better defensive teams in the League. They are physical, they are big, they can skate, they are long. We wanted to try and make it as hard on them as we knew they were going to make it on us.”

Robertson put the Stars on the board 1-0 at 12:49 of the third period, getting the rebound of Duchene's shot and moving the puck to his backhand in front on the power play.

“It’s not easy. One, (the Rangers are) loose, they know where their season is going. Two, they’ve got really good players,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “I thought our penalty kill was excellent. I thought we got better as the game went on. I thought (Oettinger) was really solid. There’s lots of things I liked. We come in the third and keep pushing, and the power play gets one. It’s not easy this time of year, all the games are tough.”

“I think we came in kind of having to accept it was going to be a low-event game," Rangers defenseman Adam Fox said. "I think that’s kind of the way it is with the Stars’ power and their stingy defensemen, and they got a lot of big guys out there. Special teams made the difference, and that was really just the start of the game, though."

Robertson put one into the empty net for the 2-0 final at 19:01. His first attempt on the empty net went wide, with Duchene getting the rebound off the end boards and sending it off the right post. Robertson put in the third chance attempt on the backhand.

“I am going to give (Dallas) credit, honestly. They were pressuring (on the penalty kill) and you could tell, from both sides, the puck was bouncing a lot out there. I feel like the ice was (not great) at times, but I think we had some opportunities to execute a little bit better,” Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad said. “I thought they did a good job of taking time and space away. We tried to come up with solutions, but today was just not one of those days unfortunately, and we will learn from it and move on.”