Stars vs. Sabres: Jake Oettinger Posts Back-to-Back Shutouts as Mikko Rantanen Piles Up Four Points

Somewhere in Western New York, a Sabres fan is still waiting for a puck to cross the goal line. Jake Oettinger has turned the Dallas crease into a members-only club, and on Thursday night at KeyBank Center nobody wearing blue and gold got past the velvet rope.

Oettinger stopped all 26 shots he faced for his second consecutive shutout, Mikko Rantanen piled up a goal and three assists, and the Dallas Stars beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-0. Wyatt Johnston added three assists, and Jason Robertson, Sam Steel and Roope Hintz also scored as Dallas made it two wins in a row after dropping its first two games of the season.

A Quiet First, Then a Second-Period Blitz

For most of the opening 20 minutes this looked like it might be a goalie duel. Buffalo had a couple of quality chances early, the kind coach Lindy Ruff would be stewing over after the game. Dallas, meanwhile, needed exactly one clean rush.

At 9:03 of the first, Robertson and Rantanen broke out on a 2-on-1 down the right side, and Robertson beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen low on the blocker side for a 1-0 lead, his second goal of the season.

Then the second period arrived, and the Sabres spent most of it chasing.

Steel made it 2-0 at 9:36 with a long-range snap shot that survived a forest of bodies and went five-hole. Thomas Harley and Rantanen drew the assists on Steel's first of the year.

At 13:57 came the bounce that tells you whose night it is. Nils Lundkvist's point shot missed the target, caromed off the end boards and popped right out to Rantanen, and with Luukkonen caught on the far side, the easiest backhand of the week made it 3-0.

Buffalo then handed over the final dagger. Jack Quinn was sent off for cross-checking Miro Heiskanen at 15:01, and 33 seconds later Johnston found Hintz in the right circle. Hintz picked the far top corner for the Stars' first power-play goal of the season. Dallas had been 0-for-9 with the extra man before that, according to NHL.com.

Four goals on 18 shots. That is not a volume attack. That is efficiency worthy of its own TED Talk.

Otter and the Engine Room

The third period belonged to Oettinger. Dallas sat on its lead, Buffalo finally found some push, and the Stars goalie erased all of it. Rantanen did not sugarcoat how the final frame looked from the bench.

"The first two periods really good, and then in the third, sitting back a little bit, they get a couple chances, but 'Otter' was pretty good in net," Rantanen said.

Pretty good is doing some heavy lifting there. Oettinger followed up a 13-save shutout in Monday's 5-0 home win over San Jose with 26 more saves and zero goals against. The AP lists him at 18 career shutouts. NHL.com added that this is the second time in his career he has posted shutouts in consecutive games, making him the third goalie in Stars history to do it multiple times, joining Ed Belfour and Cesare Maniago, who managed it three times each.

His active shutout streak sits at 146:55, the second longest of his career. The longest is 154:20, set from March 28 to April 7, 2024. He is close enough to smell it.

Rantanen, meanwhile, touched every Dallas goal. He set up Robertson, picked up the secondary assist on Steel's goal, scored the backhander and earned another helper on Hintz's power-play strike, finishing plus-3 in 15:27. Per NHL.com, it was his 26th career four-point game, tied with Artemi Panarin for the fifth most since Rantanen's debut in 2015-16.

"We had our legs again, I think that's the key," Rantanen said.

Johnston was the quiet co-star, collecting three assists in 16:40. Hintz scored and controlled the dot, winning 12 of 17 faceoffs as Dallas took 38 draws to Buffalo's 23. Harley logged 23:35, blocked four shots and finished plus-3 with an assist.

Hintz kept his explanation refreshingly simple: "Don't think too much and try to play with the instincts and make a play if it's there, and then just try to play quick hockey."

Turning Point: The Power Play That Wasn't

The game was still 1-0 when Heiskanen went to the box for hooking Owen Power at 1:50 of the second period. That was Buffalo's chance to grab momentum on home ice, and it went nowhere. Less than six minutes after the kill expired, Steel scored, and the floodgates opened.

The Sabres finished 0-for-3 on the power play, and NHL.com noted they are now 0-for-13 to start the season. Luukkonen, who made 14 saves on 18 shots, refused to hide behind his teammates.

"I don't care if they score four on breakaways, you don't win hockey games by letting in four goals," Luukkonen said. "It's something I need to figure out and be better."

Stats That Matter

• 26-for-26: Oettinger's save line, good for a second straight shutout.
• 4 points: Rantanen's total, with a hand in all four Dallas goals.
• 0-for-13: Buffalo's power play to open the season, after an 0-for-3 night.
• 38-23: Faceoffs won, Dallas over Buffalo.
• 17-8: Blocked shots, Dallas over Buffalo. The Stars got in front of everything.

What It Means

Dallas improves to 2-2-0 and 1-1-0 on the road, and the panic from an 0-2 start has quietly evaporated. The Stars were shut out 4-0 at home by St. Louis in the opener and lost 2-1 at Nashville before this two-game turnaround. Coach Glen Gulutzan liked how the pieces are fitting together.

"We've just got to keep stacking here. We've got to stack plays and games up on each other," Gulutzan said.

Buffalo slips to 2-2-0, and 2-1-0 at home. The Sabres had won the first two games of this five-game homestand, both one-goal games against Chicago and Minnesota, but NHL.com pointed out they have now allowed the first goal and trailed by multiple goals in each of their last three games. Ruff did not need a whiteboard to diagnose it.

"Got to start better," Ruff said. "Our starts have to be better. We have to start putting the puck in the back of the net early."

Dallas visits Pittsburgh on Saturday night, while Buffalo hosts Utah the same night.

Closing Take

Every season has a goalie who spends October looking like a cheat code, and right now Oettinger is the one holding the controller. Two games, zero goals allowed, and a Buffalo team that walked into the third period down four and walked out still searching for its first. If the Sabres want to fix their starts, they might want to avoid starting against him.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press and NHL.com; postgame quotes as reported by NHL.com.