Oettinger makes 22 saves, Stars shut out Jets to gain in Central

DALLAS -- Jake Oettinger made 22 saves, and the Dallas Stars defeated the Winnipeg Jets 3-0 at American Airlines Center on Thursday.

It was Oettinger's third shutout of the season and his 15th in the NHL.

“Just like to get the win, and shutouts are icing on the cake. They’re hard to come by. It takes a lot of luck and good play in front of you, which I had both tonight,” Oettinger said. “Lately I’ve been trying to work on just staying in it the whole game. It’s pretty easy to doze off and next thing you know, it’s in the back of your net. Just trying to stay focused and if I’m not getting shots, I’m trying to simulate things in my head and try to stay in it. I thought I did a good job of that. You knew they were going to push so I just tried to make a few timely saves so it didn’t get close.”

Arttu Hyry and Adam Erne each had a goal and an assist for the Stars (45-19-12), who are 2-4-2 in their past eight games.

Dallas is in second place in the Central Division, six points behind the Colorado Avalanche.

“I think no matter what we put out there tonight, we were all ready to turn the page on what’s been going on lately and get going in the right direction before the playoffs,” Erne said. “When you go to the playoffs, you can’t just flip a switch and get going. It’s something you have to build towards. I think we want to finish these last seven games or so and put ourselves in a spot here where we’re happy with our game come Game 1 of the playoffs.”

Connor Hellebuyck made 18 saves for the Jets (32-31-12), who had won four of five and are 6-3-2 in their past 11.

Winnipeg is three points behind the San Jose Sharks for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

“I didn’t like our first two periods. I know the first period, they got the couple ones on the power play and then we turned the puck over and gave them the second one. We didn’t have enough compete, we didn’t have enough guys getting our nose over the puck and being heavy on it. Our execution wasn’t great,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said. “Third period, we went out and decided we were going to do that stuff and, you know, I know it was a 3-0 game at the time, but that’s how we have to be for the early parts of the game. Like we’ve done against Colorado, like we’ve done against Vegas and other teams. We’ve come out and played hard and heavy. We didn’t do it early on enough.”

Matt Duchene opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 9:43 of the first period. After his initial shot was stopped by Hellebuyck, the rebound bounced off the end boards back to Duchene, who then put the puck in off Hellebuyck's right hip from below the goal line to the left of the net.

“They got the power-play goal and another quick one right after. We talked about getting off to a better start in Chicago, but I think just managing pucks, getting pucks on the forecheck, I thought they did a really good job of breaking pucks out. We were a little slower breaking pucks out and they came with a lot of pressure and we didn't really have great skate screens and a lot of low support. They are a good team and they make it tough to generate offense,” Winnipeg captain Adam Lowry said. “I liked the pushback and the compete in the third but we have just got to do a better job of establishing a forecheck and directing some pucks at the net and finishing some plays low and if they are not there, not being too stubborn and putting some [pucks] to the goalie’s feet.”

The goal ended a streak of six games in which the Stars had allowed the first goal of the game.

“You’re going to be in situations coming up that are hard situations. Can you sit down in the morning and get yourself centered and re-centered and come out and play a good game?” Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said. “We did some individual video this morning and we challenged our guys a little bit. Like, ‘Hey, enough’s enough.’ It was a really good response from a character group.”

Hyry made it 2-0 just 1:29 later at 11:12 when he beat a sprawling Hellebuyck with a snap shot from the bottom of the right face-off circle off a cross-slot pass from Jamie Benn. It was Hyry's second goal in the past three games after he scored his first NHL goal on Sunday.

“That’s where you want to score, in front of the home fans. I got it done, and it was really good,” Hyry said. “I feel like [Erne and I] speak the same language with hockey. Simple hockey. Play deep and chase the puck, and I think we got a few huge recoveries there. It’s easy to play with him.”

Erne extended the lead to 3-0 at 2:15 of the second period. Lian Bichsel sent a slap shot from the point that was tipped by Erne in the left circle low to the glove side.

“We've always had those similar playing styles. And, they shut it down pretty well,” Jets defenseman Dylan Samberg said. “We have a good goaltender, they have a good goaltender. Sometimes it goes our way, sometimes it goes their way. And obviously, with our start, we kind of dug ourselves a hole there and couldn't dig out.”

NOTES: Oettinger surpassed Ben Bishop for the fifth-most shutouts in franchise history. … Dallas dressed 11 forwards and seven defenseman. ... Stars defenseman Kyle Capobianco returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the past 18 games. He had one block in 7:49 of ice time. ... Jets forward Morgan Barron was minus-1 and had one shot on goal in his return after missing the past two games due to a concussion sustained in a 3-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Mar. 26. ... Winnipeg defenseman Elias Salomonsson was injured after a collision with Dallas forward Jason Robertson midway through the second period. Arniel confirmed postgame that he is in concussion protocol.