Johnston scores twice, Stars defeat Kraken for 7th straight win

DALLAS -- Wyatt Johnston scored twice to lead the Dallas Stars to a 4-1 win against the Seattle Kraken at American Airlines Center on Wednesday.

“[He’s] unbelievable. Just really proud of him. He’s showing up when it’s important,” Dallas defenseman Lian Bichsel said. “On the power play, last year in the playoffs, he’s always showing up at the right time. He’s just an unbelievable person. I’m good friends with him off the ice too, spending time together. He’s a huge player in this franchise.”

Matt Duchene had a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to seven games (seven goals, four assists), and Thomas Harley had two assists for the Stars (35-14-9), who have won seven straight and eight of their past nine. Casey DeSmith made 18 saves.

“I thought we were pretty good coming out of the break. I thought there was good emotion in the game. Thought we picked up where we left off almost, which is nice to see,” Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said. “I use the kind of wording of the way we want to play ‘with a little fabric in our jersey.’ The physicality, emotion and stuff that you need to win. I thought the guys did that before the break and they brought it tonight too.”

Ryker Evans scored and Joey Daccord made 28 saves for the Kraken (27-21-9), who are 6-4-0 in their past 10 and play the second of a back-to-back set at the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.

“They’re one of the best teams in the League. Any time you get a chance to match up against them you can measure yourself and where you’re at,” Seattle captain Jordan Eberle said. “We’ve struggled to create offense against them this year. They’ve had our number that way. For a team that defends in the inside, you’ve got to find a way to beat these guys.”

Johnston gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 18:41 of the first period, deflecting Esa Lindell's right point shot past Daccord blocker side from in front for his 30th goal of the season.

“Overall, the game was disappointing for me. Like I said, not good enough. They’re a good hockey team over there. We needed to be a lot better than we were,” Seattle coach Lane Lambert said. “We were fine for the first seven, eight minutes of the game. If we could’ve scored [on early power plays] it would’ve been a huge boost. It didn’t happen.”

Duchene made it 2-0 when he tipped Harley's wrist shot from the blue line at 1:43 of the second period.

“I thought we were ready to go. It’s usually the team that gets to their details and their game right off the bat, usually wins those ones coming back from break, and I thought we did that right off the bat. I think we were in control right from the start,” Duchene said. “We need to start going after teams in the third no matter what the score is. You know, let’s go after them. We had some good looks, we could have put some in, but we gave up some. We took some penalties in the third there.”

Sam Steel increased the lead to 3-0 at 5:53. Mavrik Bourque sent a wrist shot on net from low in the right face-off circle, and Steel poked the loose puck through the pads of Daccord. Seattle challenged the play for goaltender interference, but the goal was upheld after video review.

“They’re a good team and they find their success going to the net. Obviously getting tip goals and being dirty. A lot of the shots were going wide and they just happen to hit sticks so we’ve got to be better tying up sticks,” Evans said. “Boxing out early, tying up a stick. Other than if the puck hits them and goes in, you can’t score if we’ve got his stick. So tying up sticks early and boxing out as much as you can so [Daccord] can see the puck.”

On the ensuing power play, Johnston pushed it to 4-0 with his second goal at 6:14. Miro Heiskanen's wrist shot from between the circles deflected in off Johnston's left leg as he battled in front of the net. It was Johnston's 19th power-play goal of the season, passing Mike Modano for the most power-play goals in a single season since the franchise moved to Dallas. He is three away from tying the franchise record of 22 set by Dino Ciccarelli with the Minnesota North Stars in 1986-87.

“It’s a huge honor. I didn’t exactly have that on my radar going into the season but it’s great," Johnston said. "Obviously, [Mike Modano] did so much for this organization. I think that’s a given just seeing the statue outside. So many awesome players that have played in this organization, for this team, so it’s cool.

“You always want to pitch in as much as you can. I’m here to help the team win games so it’s always nice when you can get on the board and get things rolling for the post-break hockey.”

Evans beat a sprawling DeSmith with a slap shot from the left circle at 6:46 of the third period for the 4-1 final.

“I thought for the most part we were a little bit sloppy, execution-wise. We weren’t making plays and executing the pass to pass,” Eberle said. “Against a good team like that, they played simple, they played good. They defended the inside. I didn’t think we did a good job of getting inside, getting greasy.”

NOTES: Heiskanen recorded the 265th assist of his career to match Darryl Sydor for the fourth-most by a defenseman in Stars/North Stars history. ... Bichsel was minus-1 and had one shot on goal in 14:30 of ice time in his return to the lineup after missing 31 games because of a lower-body injury. ... The Stars improved to 13-1-1 all-time against the Kraken. ... Ben Meyers, a forward who missed seven games, and Berkly Catton, a forward who missed three, each returned for Seattle. ... Kraken defenseman Ryan Lindgren left the game in the first period with an undisclosed injury after colliding with Dallas forward Colin Blackwell. There was no update on his condition after the game.