O’Reilly has 3 points, leads Predators past Stars

DALLAS -- Ryan O'Reilly scored twice and had an assist, and the Nashville Predators defeated the Dallas Stars 4-1 at American Airlines Center on Thursday.

“[This win] feels very good. I think as a group, we want to be harder to play against, and kind of consistent with that, and as a group we were,” O’Reilly said. “We were hard to play against, big saves, big blocks, pucks over at the right time. The challenges can be followed up. So, it’s not going to get any easier against Colorado (Avalanche on Saturday), and that'll be the challenge for us, but something to build on.”

Jonathan Marchessault had two assists for Nashville (8-16-6), which ended an 0-5-3 skid. Justus Annunen made 35 saves for his first win in his second game with the Predators after being acquired in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche on Nov. 30.

“He was phenomenal tonight,” O’Reilly said. “He made so many timely saves. That's a very great team over there. They got a lot of firepower, they make good plays, and it was timely saves that could have changed the game for us. He made [them], and it was great to get him a win.”

Lian Bichsel scored in his NHL debut and Jake Oettinger made 22 saves for Dallas (17-11-0).

“I didn’t think we had enough chances or created enough in the whole game,” Dallas defenseman Miro Heiskanen said. “We were too slow and too soft and didn’t end plays quick enough. Forecheck wasn’t working really well, we didn’t [force] many [turnovers]. We have to be a lot sharper all over the ice.”

O’Reilly gave Nashville a 1-0 lead at 11:40 in the second period when he scored from the slot after Marchessault spotted him there from behind the net.

“[We] always stuck with it,” Nashville defenseman Adam Wilsby said. “We were pretty banged up on the [defensive] side, so it was really good by us to stay with it. And we've been really close now for the last couple games. It felt really good to win.”

Tommy Novak extended the lead to 2-0 at 13:33 when he kicked the puck to his skate and then shot it in under Oettinger’s right leg pad as he skated across the front of the crease.

“I think for the group, we stayed with it the whole game,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “We haven't had many games that we put 60 minutes [in]. Big focus was our second periods of late. And I thought our second was the best period. So, [I'm] really happy for them. I think some of the guys deserve to feel better. We've had a lot of opportunities to put up goals, and tonight we got rewarded.”

O’Reilly scored his second of the game at 14:39 to make it 3-0 when he got his stick on a point shot by Kevin Gravel.

“Pretty ugly. You’ve got to come out and dictate, and we sat back and pretty much were hoping things were going to go our way instead of making it happen,” Dallas captain Jamie Benn said. “They’re a good team. Their record probably doesn’t show it. They’ve got some great players over there and we laid an egg today.”

Bichsel cut the lead to 3-1 at 10:34 in the third period on a shot from the top of the left face-off circle.

“I was nervous,” Bichsel said. “It’s the elite. Everything is going so fast. I cannot [make] a mistake, and you have to be sharp every shift and every second. I have to learn that and bring it every shift, every game.”

Zachary L’Heureux scored into the empty net at 16:47 for the 4-1 final.

Nashville had two goals overturned on challenges by the Stars. Wilsby appeared to score his first NHL goal late in the first period, but Dallas successfully challenged for offside. Nick Blankenburg’s goal was called back late in the third period after Dallas successfully challenged for goaltender interference.

“Not close to competitive enough. Disappointing, and it was everybody. Our video review coaches were our best players tonight by far,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “You’ve got a lot of proud players [in Nashville] that have lost eight in a row. You knew they were going to compete and compete hard, and they were going to play with a little bit of fear in their belly. We needed to have a little bit more respect for that and match that competitiveness. We weren’t even close in that department tonight.”

NOTES: Wilsby had his first NHL point with an assist on O’Reilly’s first goal. … Bichsel is the third defenseman in Dallas franchise history to score in his NHL debut, joining Daniel Poulin (Dec. 12, 1981) and Bryan Maxwell (Feb. 16, 1978).