Oettinger makes 34 saves, Stars shut out Islanders in home opener

DALLAS -- Jake Oettinger made 34 saves for the Dallas Stars in a 3-0 win against the New York Islanders at American Airlines Center on Saturday.

“It’s something I don’t take for granted at all,” Oettinger said of his 11th NHL shutout. “You need to get a little lucky and some guys need to help you out. A lot of things need to go right, so I never take them for granted. You just want to get the season going the right way. Good start.”

Tyler Seguin had two goals, Jamie Benn also scored and Mason Marchment had two assists for the Stars (2-0-0) in their home opener.

“[Oettinger]’s rock-solid and we have a lot of belief in him,” Benn said. “Every night we feel like when we go on the ice we’re going to win because of him.”

Semyon Varlamov made 24 saves for the Islanders (0-1-1).

“It’s a long season. It’s not a dream start. It’s not what we were thinking about in camp, but here we are,” Islanders forward Kyle Palmieri said. “We knew it was going to be a tough road trip, but there’s positives to draw from it and definitely some things we can clean up."

Seguin gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 7:59 of the first period with a shot from the high slot.

“It’s early in the year and you get points by getting to your game quicker and having a great goaltender. That’s what’s happened in the first two games,” Seguin said.

The line of Seguin, Matt Duchene and Marchment has factored in on four of Dallas’ seven goals in the first two games.

“[My line got] lots of experience last year during the regular season. We love to communicate,” Seguin said. “We work with each other in the summer on our game, and nice to see some rewards from that.”

Benn made it 2-0 at 10:58 of the second period. Two Islanders players overskated a loose puck in the slot, allowing Benn to collect it before beating Varlamov blocker side with a shot off the post.

“The chances they got, we made mistakes to give them that,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “I think we turned back a few too many times. But other than that, it was a low-chance game with two goalies playing good hockey. We didn’t get the bounce we needed to just give us one, but you can’t have many mistakes against this team, and just a couple that cost us.”

Islanders coach Patrick Roy said: “I thought today we had better jump. We were moving well on the ice. I thought there was a lot to like about this game. If we could just fix our turnovers coming out of our defensive zone coverage, we’ll be fine.”

Seguin scored into an empty net at 18:57 of the third period for the 3-0 final.

“The home opener, your natural reaction as a player is to try and put on a show. I thought we did a good job of playing within ourselves tonight. I don’t think we beat ourselves,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “That’s a tough team to play against. They play a really structured game, and I thought we played a smart hockey game tonight. We didn’t turn it into a track meet or run-and-gun where everyone was trying to get points and put on a show. This is what it’s about. It’s about winning games.”

NOTES: Stars defenseman Mathew Dumba sustained a lower-body injury and did not play the second or third period. DeBoer said Dumba will have imaging done on Monday to determine the extent of his injury. He is considered day to day. … Seguin had his 50th multigoal game, which is fourth in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history.