Robertson gets goal, 2 assists, Stars edge Sabres

DALLAS -- Jason Robertson had a goal and two assists, and the Dallas Stars defeated the Buffalo Sabres 4-2 at American Airlines Center on Tuesday.

“I think we played well enough to deserve the win,” Robertson said. “We just kept pushing, pushing, the goalie made some great saves, but we kept following our fundamentals and got rewarded. We outshot them, had a lot of shots, lot of chances, and I think that’s a good game plan for each and every game.”

Roope Hintz, Wyatt Johnston, and Esa Lindell scored, and Thomas Harley had two assists for Dallas (22-13-1), who are 6-3-1 in their past 10 games. Casey DeSmith made 21 saves.

“It would have been easy to cheat for offense and just press a little bit too hard and get burned on the counter-attack on the rush, but I don’t think we did that,” DeSmith said. “We did a great job staying out of the box. We took care of the puck all over the ice, especially in our end, and we just really limited their chances.”

Jason Zucker and Beck Malenstyn scored for Buffalo (14-20-4), who had won their previous three games. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 29 saves.

“I feel like those times when we get frustrated, we’re not playing on the same page, it plays against us. I think that’s what happens when we don’t get the offense we want,” Luukkonen said. “We didn’t get power plays. I think that was just a tiny bit off in our game today to find a push. A couple of saves from me too here or there, and it would have been an overtime game. But it’s always easy to say ‘what if’ so I’ve just got to get better and be ready for the next one.”

Johnston gave Dallas a 3-2 lead at 11:32 in the third period when he deflected a Harley shot from the half wall.

“Just got to the net. We’ve been talking a lot about getting pucks there, so just trying to get there. [Harley] threw one at me and just tried to tip it on net, and lucky enough it went in,” Johnston said. “Cheating the game is not going to work in this league. It’s going to cost you a lot more than it’s going to help you. Sometimes it is tough when things are not going in, and you want to generate stuff every time you’re out there, but you’ve just got to keep doing the right things and eventually things will go in.”

Lindell shot the length of the ice into an empty net at 18:23 for the 4-2 final.

“I thought their push in the third was better than ours. They had three or four chances even before they scored, and then we made costly mistakes that cost us goals. We need points,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “I think you’re in a tight game, you’ve got to make the play in the third. I think sometimes we defer to maybe a little bit too safe. The bottom line is we need to win games.”

Hintz gave Dallas a 1-0 lead on a shot from the high slot that beat Luukkonen stick side at 9:49 of the second period.

Zucker tied it 1-1 at 10:20 when he chipped in a loose puck that was sitting in the crease after DeSmith made the initial save on a Tage Thompson tip attempt.

“I thought there was pockets within the game that we played really well. I thought we were able to do a good job of rolling over shift after shift, continuing to apply pressure, get looks on net,” Malenstyn said. “We just have to be able to do that for longer periods of the game.”

Robertson put Dallas ahead 2-1 at 2:35 in the third on a wrist shot from the slot off a turnover.

“That’s a game where you can get impatient,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “Pucks aren’t going in. They’re a dangerous team, they don’t need many looks to stick it in the net. I just thought we had great patience, we just stuck with our game, stuck with our game and just grinded it out.”

Malenstyn tied it 2-2 at 4:57 when the puck deflected off of DeSmith’s skate and hit his leg before bouncing in.

“I think we probably relied on [Luukkonen] too much. We gave up too many chances. Realistically, you’re not going to win many games playing that way,” Malenstyn said. “I thought we did a good job of coming back in a few instances there, but we’ve got to put together a full 60. That’s a great hockey team across there. They’re going to take advantage when you give them those opportunities, so a few plays for us to learn from there to move forward.”