Heika’s Take: Stars claim “sloppy” win thanks to heroics from Robertson, Oettinger

In the journey that is the 2024-25 season, the Stars have found all sorts of new ways to play and win hockey games.

Wednesday was a new one.

Dallas leaned heavily on goalie Jake Oettinger, and received a natural hat trick from Jason Robertson, but still had to hold on for a 4-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place. It was a frustrating night in a lot of ways.

“This is a hard league to win in, and I haven’t had many disappointing wins in my career, but this would be one of them,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said of his team taking a 4-0 lead and then holding on at the end. “I thought we played a really immature, sloppy game tonight.”

The Stars have been all over the map in recent games and on Wednesday were outshot 44-24. That said, Oettinger held them in early and set the table for Robertson, who was fantastic in converting several great scoring chances from Roope Hintz, who finished with three assists, and Thomas Harley, who had two.

Bottom line, Dallas looked to be taking advantage of an Oilers team that was missing leading scorers Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. But then Edmonton clawed back, the Stars made several horrible mistakes, and Oettinger had to shut things down for the final 1:25 to secure a win that was a lot more nerve-racking than it needed to be.

“It was pretty unnecessary,” Oettinger said. “We’ve got to be a lot better at the end, there is no need for that.”

The Stars are actually 4-0-1 in their past five games and move to 46-21-4 overall. That said, they have been forced to win games in overtime and also forced to survive in games where they have been outplayed.

“He was awesome tonight. He was our rock,” Robertson said of Oettinger. “They had 45 shots and we weathered the storm. We’re trying to find ways to win throughout the season, and this was definitely a new one.”

Yet, not exactly what this team is seeking as it gets ready for the playoffs. Dallas was shorthanded six times and allowed two power play goals. It was outshot 17-5 in the third period when it made mistakes exiting the zone and took way too many penalties. It also had too many turnovers and defensive mistakes.

“That’s not sustainable at the end,” Oettinger said.

While Robertson added, “We were able to survive, but we definitely don’t want to repeat that again.”

Robertson was the highlight of the night. The 25-year-old winger had foot surgery in the offseason and started slowly this year. However, he hit his stride around Jan. 1 and has led the NHL in goal scoring in that span with 23 in 35 games. Hintz, Wyatt Johnston and Harley also are among the NHL scoring leaders, and that’s one of the reasons the Stars have such a good record despite several hiccups.

“There’s a lot of confidence out there,” Robertson said. “I think a lot of players – not just me – have that right now. A lot of guys had slower first halves and then have turned it on, and I think that’s contagious. You see a guy like Johnny on fire right now, you see a guy like Tom on fire right now, everyone feeds off that.”

Robertson scored his three goals in a 10:29 span in the second period. The “natural” hat trick gave Dallas complete control of the game and made it appear as if the third period would just be a stepping stone to a game in Calgary on Thursday. But the Oilers and former Stars forward Corey Perry pushed back and were able to make it tight.

Asked if the team could learn from this while heading to Calgary, Oettinger said, “Hopefully.”

While DeBoer added, “I hope so. You probably deserve to lose tonight – that might wake them up a little bit. But we’ll see.”

And that is the concern with recent games. They each seem to be followed by a “we’ll see.”

“It’s concerning,” DeBoer said. “It’s late in the season, playoffs are around the corner, and it’s a concerning trend here lately.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.