Stars score 8, hand Lightning 4th straight loss

DALLAS -- Joe Pavelski had a goal and two assists, extending his point streak to nine games, and the Dallas Stars defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 8-1 at American Airlines Center on Saturday.

Pavelski has 12 points (six goals, six assists) in that span.

“It was a good 60 minutes and good start,” Dallas captain Jamie Benn said. “Our penalty kill did a great job. We gave up one, but that’s a great power play. We’ll take the two points.”

Jason Robertson scored twice, and Benn, Mason Marchment, and Thomas Harley each had a goal and an assist for the Stars (14-5-3). Jake Oettinger made 32 saves for Dallas, which is 7-2-2 in its past 11 games.

Victor Hedman scored, and Nikita Kucherov had an assist to extend his point streak to nine games for the Lightning (10-10-5), who lost their season-high fourth straight game. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves on 25 shots through the first two periods, and Jonas Johansson made seven saves in the third.

Tampa Bay has been outscored 19-5 during its skid.

“In 82 games, there’s going to be some stinkers, when it feels like every shot’s going in the net (for the opponent) and every one you take is not,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Usually, you can just burn the tape and turn the page and move on to the next game. What makes it tough is three of the four where we feel for sure could have taken two of them, got points out of the last three. Then you don’t, and all of a sudden you’ve lost four in a row, so this one is much more of a stinger.”

Kucherov has 17 points (four goals, 13 assists) during his point streak. With 23 games played, he became the fastest player in Lightning history to reach 40 points in a season (15 goals, 25 assists). Steven Stamkos required 25 games to reach 40 points in 2010-11.

Tyler Seguin gave the Stars a 1-0 lead 1:01 into the game when he batted a rebound out of midair near the left post.

Robertson made it 2-0 at 6:28 on a sharp-angled shot that got between Vasilevskiy and the left post, and Benn extended the lead to 3-0 at 7:39 on a breakaway.

“It's a little bit unfortunate, we score eight (goals) on [14 shots] in Carolina (in an 8-2 win Nov. 24), and then over the last three games or so, we’ve put a lot of rubber on net and can’t seem to find a way to bear down when we get chances,” Lightning forward Austin Watson said. “It seems like what we do give up are some pretty Grade A, point-blank looks that end up in the back of our net.”

Hedman cut it to 3-1 at 12:25 on a power-play goal through a screen.

Marchment extended the lead to 4-1 at 3:42 of the second period from the top of the right face-off circle. It was his third goal in two games.

“He’s always had that game, but hockey is confidence,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “It’s really tough as a coach to give players confidence. You can give them opportunity and you can recognize when they’re doing things well, which we try and do on a regular basis. But to really feel good out there, you have to get on a roll and stick with it. He’s a different player, obviously. I felt this year we would see this version of him. He had a tough year last year both on and off the ice at different moments, so just really good to see.”

Pavelski made it 5-1 on the power play at 12:25 when he deflected a point shot from Harley. Robertson extended the lead to 6-1 on the power play at 14:23 after he pounced on a rebound after Benn’s initial shot rang off the post.

“We’re not happy, obviously, but I think we can watch game tape and take some positives away,” Lightning defenseman Calvin de Haan said. “We’re doing some good things, we’re just not capitalizing offensively. It’s five guys out there -- it’s not just our forwards, it’s everyone being a part of the offense. At the same time, we’ve got to find a way to keep the puck out of our net. Just seems like teams are playing a little opportunistic against us right now and pucks are going in. We’ve just got to stay positive and keep moving forward.”

Harley made it 7-1 at 13:27 of the third, and Sam Steel scored at 14:26 for the 8-1 final, converting after a 360-degree spin in the right circle.

“If you want to be a Stanley Cup contender, you’ve got to have depth scoring,” Robertson said. “It’s great that a guy like [Steel], that has played so well, [was on the penalty kill for] some hard minutes, done a lot of great things, gets on the score sheet. It’s nice when your bottom six guys go out there and they can produce and score.”

NOTES: Robertson has seven points (three goals, four assists) in a five-game point streak. ... With his 61st multipoint game since turning 35, Pavelski moved within two of former Stars forward Mike Modano for the most by a United States-born player at that age or older. Pavelski is 39. ... The Lightning went 1-for-6 on the power play. ... Dallas and Tampa Bay will complete their home-and-home set Monday at Amalie Arena.