O’Reilly has 3 points, Predators hand Stars 7th straight loss

NASHVILLE -- Ryan O'Reilly had a goal and two assists for the Nashville Predators in a 5-1 win against the Dallas Stars at Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday.

Jordan Oesterle and Jonathan Marchessault each had a goal and an assist for the Predators (30-44-8), who had lost their previous two and finish the season in seventh place in the Central Division. Juuse Saros made 29 saves.

“It’s nice to kind of move on from this,” O’Reilly said. “Once you’re eliminated from the playoffs, it’s not easy hockey to play. It’s disappointing. Look at that team over there. They’re going to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and we’re not. It’s not a good feeling.”

Mason Marchment scored for the Stars (50-26-6), who have lost seven straight (0-5-2) to end the regular season ahead of their matchup with the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference First Round. Jake Oettinger allowed five goals on 22 shots through two periods before he was replaced by Casey DeSmith, who made 12 saves.

“Yeah, of course,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said when asked if he has concern about the way they’re playing heading into the playoffs. “Particularly with the injuries. But we’ve got to figure it out. I mean, Saturday is the first time in probably three weeks where we’re playing with basically our season back on the line again, so that desperation level has to be there. Our execution has to be there. So, we’ve got to make sure we’re ready for that.”

Forward Tyler Seguin had an assist in his return for the Stars after getting hip surgery on Dec. 5 and missing the past 58 games.

“I would call it a relief, for sure,” Seguin said. “I think no matter what, when you’re coming back from anything, there’s a question mark. So yeah, I’ll take it and run.”

Stars forward Jason Robertson left the game in the second period with a lower-body injury and did not return.

“We’ll have to wait until we get back and see what exactly we’re dealing with,” DeBoer said of Robertson’s status.

Marchment gave the Stars a 1-0 lead 16 seconds into the first period with a one-timer in front off a pass from Matt Duchene behind the net.

“Offensively, I think we had chances that were going to be playoff-like, getting inside and creating,” Marchment said. “But defensively, it definitely wasn’t there tonight. Definitely one was on me, for sure. Everyone’s got to kind of take a look in the mirror and find their details, but we’re an experienced group. We’ve been on a lot of runs. I’m not really going to stress about it. I think once [Game 1 against Colorado] starts, we’re going to be ready to go.”

Oesterle scored for the Predators to tie it 1-1 at 13:02 with a slap shot from the left point that deflected in off Stars forward Mavrik Bourque.

Jakub Vrana gave the Predators a 2-1 lead 49 seconds later, finding space alone in front and redirecting Oesterle’s one-timer from the left circle past Oettinger.

Justin Barron made it 3-1 at 19:45 with a tap-in at the top of the crease off a centering pass from Luke Evangelista.

“It’s a nice way to send it off,” Barron said. “It was a good effort from the team. We did a good job in the third period of just playing with the lead and being solid. It’s a nice send-off to end the season.”

Marchessault pushed it to 4-1 at 6:31 of the second period with a backdoor tap-in off a cross-crease pass from Steven Stamkos.

O’Reilly chipped in a cross-slot pass from Filip Forsberg on the power play for the 5-1 final at 9:49.

“We’ve shown in spurts that we can be really good against some of the really good teams, but then at other times we’ve been careless, playing loose, giving up easy goals,” Forsberg said. “So there’s certainly a lot that we’ve learned on both sides, good and bad. There’s going to be a lot of thinking and processing kind of what’s been going on.”

NOTES: Seguin finished with three shots on goal in 14:48 of ice time. … Marchment’s goal was the fastest to open a game for Dallas this season.