Wyatt Johnston had his first career hat trick and the Dallas Stars rallied from three goals down in the third period to beat the San Jose Sharks 7-6 on Roope Hintz's overtime goal on Tuesday night.
Hintz came off the bench following a long stretch for Dallas in the offensive zone, took a pass from Logan Stankoven in the slot and beat Kaapo Kahkonen.
“A lot of ups and downs,” Johnston said. “Obviously wasn’t a whole lot of fun when we were losing. But it’s a lot of fun when you can come back in a game like that and finish it off.”
Johnston had a five-point night with two assists, Stankoven had two goals and two assists, and Jamie Benn had a goal and three assists to get Dallas off to a good start on a three-game California swing.
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“Obviously it’s not the way we wanted to play tonight,” Stankoven said. “You never want to give up six goals, but it’s nice to pop a few in there and I’m just trying to do whatever I can to contribute.”
Jake Oettinger made 14 saves.
Anthony Duclair had his third two-goal game since the All-Star break and added two assists to lead the Sharks, who are winless in their last eight games.
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“I don’t even know where to start,” Duclair said. "Just lack of focus mentally. Going into the third 6-3, you just have to win that game. That’s just unacceptable. We just found a way to lose that game tonight.”
Fabian Zetterlund, Ryan Carpenter, Filip Zadina and Mikael Granlund also scored for San Jose. Kahkonen made 33 saves.
The Sharks opened a 6-3 lead early in the third period when Duclair set up Granlund for a goal and seemed to be on the way to an easy win.
But Dallas' young stars took over with Johnston and Stankoven combining for three goals in a span of less than three minutes to tie the game on Johnston's third goal with 4:18 remaining.
Stankoven started the frenzy with his second goal, giving the rookie five in six career games.
“Those two kids pretty much grabbed our group in the last 10 minutes and willed us to the win,” coach Pete DeBoer said.
Duclair and Zetterlund teamed up to help the Sharks break out to a 2-0 lead in the first period. Zetterlund set up Duclair on the power play early in the first and Duclair returned the favor midway through the period.
But Dallas answered with two power-play goals in a 49-second span in the final two minutes of the period.
Both goals came off point shots from Miro Heiskanen following offensive zone faceoff wins. Benn deflected the first one past Kahkonen and then Stankoven took an errant shot off the end boards and tucked it into the side of the net for the equalizer.
The teams traded goals early in the second before the Sharks scored two in the final five minutes to take a 5-3 lead.
Defenseman Chris Tanev made his debut for Dallas after being acquired last week from Calgary in a three-team trade. Tanev had to get his work visa finalized and then his flight to San Jose was delayed but he made it in time to suit up for the game.
UP NEXT
Stars: Visit Anaheim on Friday night.
Sharks: Host the New York Islanders on Thursday night.
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com.hub/NHL
