Hintz scores hat trick, Stars defeat Blackhawks

CHICAGO -- Roope Hintz scored his third NHL hat trick for the Dallas Stars in a 5-2 win against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Thursday.

Hintz scored twice on the power play and had an empty-net goal to extend his goal streak to four games for the Stars (33-16-13). Matt Murray made 19 saves in his NHL debut, and Miro Heiskanen, Jason Robertson and Joe Pavelski each had two assists.
"It's one of the best things that's ever happened," Murray said. "It's been a long time coming. I couldn't have really dreamt it up any better. It's awesome."
Dallas won for the second straight night following a 4-2 victory against the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday.
"Just that we found a way," Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. "I thought it was one of those games that could have got frustrating after the second period to come out tied after I thought we dominated the period. Some frustration could have set in, and we could have maybe tried to open it up and tried to push for a goal; sometimes bad things happen. We were patient, stuck with it. The big guys who were supposed to score for us scored."

Petr Mrazek made 31 saves for the Blackhawks (21-35-5), who have lost three straight.
It was the Blackhawks' first home game since they traded forward Patrick Kane to the New York Rangers on Tuesday. They lost at the Arizona Coyotes a few hours after the trade on Tuesday.
"Yeah, I thought we played a pretty good game overall," said Chicago coach Luke Richardson. "We had a little trouble on the penalty kill, the first two, we have chances, when we touch the puck it's got to go down the ice. Not getting out of the D-zone on the penalty kill on the first two, but I thought we did a better job in the second period on that."
After the game,
the Blackhawks traded
forward Max Domi and goalie prospect
Dylan Wells
to the Blackhawks for goalie
Anton Khudobin
and a second-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. Chicago held Domi out of the lineup.
"You develop friendships with guys," Blackhawks defenseman Seth Jones said. "'Kaner' being here for 15, 16 years and [he's] done a lot of great things. And then 'Domes' came in and was a big part of our team, not only on the ice, but off the ice. Guys enjoyed being around him. So, you know, not just those two guys, but all the guys we've traded away. It's emotional for everyone."
Jamie Benn scored 45 seconds into the third period to give Dallas a 3-2 lead. Wyatt Johnston put the puck behind the net to Evgenii Dadonov, who fed Benn in front. Dadonov has three points (one goal, two assists) in three games with the Stars since being traded from the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday.
"I thought we deserved it tonight," said Benn, the Dallas captain. "We played well. We grinded them down most of the game. When we do that shift after shift, it's going to pay off. It might take 60 minutes, but I found a way to get an early one there."

Hintz gave the Stars a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 10:21 of the first period. Pavelski got his own rebound in the slot and passed to Hintz, who scored from the left face-off circle.
Cole Guttman tied it 1-1 at 15:54, scoring off the rebound of a shot by Tyler Johnson. He put his stick between the legs of Dallas defenseman Ryan Suter to knock in the rebound.
Hintz put the Stars back in front 2-1 on the power play at 17:05, taking a cross-ice pass from Heiskanen and scoring on a one-timer from the right circle.
Seth Jones tied it 2-2 just 26 seconds into the second period, scoring unassisted on a shot through traffic from the right point.
"Got some guys get shipped off here, new guys come in, but thought we were competitive tonight," Jones said. "We weren't as clean as we would like to be some of our passing plays, but we worked hard, we fought to the end. [Mrazek] played great in the net and gave us a chance, but I liked our grit at times and our determination."
After Benn gave the Stars the lead, Esa Lindell scored an empty-net goal at 18:35 to make it 4-2 before Hintz scored at 19:46 into the empty net for the 5-2 final.
"Of course, you've got to be smart when you're playing back to backs, when it's an away game and they're coming for us," Hintz said. "I think the biggest thing is the start is huge and then just try to play smart."

Murray was called up from Texas of the American Hockey League on Wednesday and backed up Jake Oettinger in the win against Arizona.
"Good for him," DeBoer said. "He deserved the start, worked to get here, a great story. He wasn't a high draft pick or anything like that. You always like those stories. It's always nice to win your first game, and he made some saves, especially early in that game. He had to earn it."
NOTES: Robertson has 201 NHL points (93 goals, 108 assists). He required the fifth-fewest games (190) in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history to reach 200 points (Dino Ciccarelli, 174 games; Neal Broten, 176; Bobby Smith, 176; Tyler Seguin, 179). … The Blackhawks recalled forward Lukas Reichel from Rockford of the American Hockey League. He had one shot on goal and was minus-1. Reichel has played five NHL games this season and scored his first career goal Jan. 8.