Oettinger Chased, Stars Lose Eighth Straight to Maple Leafs Wednesday

The Dallas Stars lose their eighth straight matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs after being defeated 5-3 on Wednesday. It was a game to forget for Jake Oettinger, who was pulled following the second period after he allowed four or more goals for just the fourth time this season. Toronto relied heavily on their star players with William Nylander scoring twice.

The Stars were on the forecheck early and they generated a couple of chances with their speed. Sam Steel caught a lucky break when he caught Auston Matthews off guard as he was nonchalantly skating to pick up the puck after a shot off the glass.

Steel races in with no Leafs defender testing him and he makes a move to slide the puck through the five hole of Joseph Woll for the game's first goal and give the early 1-0 lead to the Stars.

Toronto doesn't wait long to respond as just minutes later, a bad bounce gives Max Domi the chance to take the puck the other way for a quick two-on-one opportunity.

The defender plays the pass and covers up Jason Robertson's brother, Nick, so Domi fakes as if he wants to pass and switches to a shot and fires the puck top shelf past Oettinger to tie the game at one.

The Stars ended the first with a sizeable amount of the momentum as they recorded 15 shots to Toronto's four. The momentum carried over into the second period, where Dallas didn't waste any time.

Wyatt Johnston shoveled the puck up to Evgenii Dadonov, who makes a quick move entering the zone to give himself a clear lane at the net in tight. The veteran winger puts the puck in the only bit of space he can and roofs it past Woll just 40 seconds into the period. The Stars regain the lead at 2-1 but still lots of time to go.

Toronto again picked up the pace and used their star power to their advantage. They worked the puck around for Matthews and William Nylander which eventually pays off as the Stars breakdown defensively and miss Nylander getting behind them.

Matthews feeds a sauce pass through two Stars defenders for Nylander, who gets a clean breakaway. He waits until Oettinger drops into butterfly before shooting the puck up and above the Stars netminder.

The Leafs don't let up and they continue to dial up the pressure as just 16 seconds later, Nick Robertson works the puck through a Stars defender with the puck kicking out into the high slot. He fires off a shot that Oettinger doesn't see through a screen from his own defender, giving the Leafs the 3-2 lead.

Things turn from ugly to worse when Robertson makes another nice play with a neutral zone interception and dishes the puck to Bobby McMann, who fires a far blue line shot on Oettinger. It catches the ice cold goaltender off guard and sneaks past him in near the post for a fourth Leafs goal.

The last 20 minutes were crucial for the Stars and despite landing more shots, Joseph Woll was proving he was hard to beat with several goal-saving saves like a diving grab on Miro Heiskanen.

The Stars power play was and has been a significant problem, especially when playing at home as they went scoreless on four opportunities against Toronto and now have a power play that is six for 47 this season.

Dallas would love to use it as a lightning bolt to ignite the offence as they've score two or fewer goals in five of their last eight games.

They finally scored on a man advantage with the net empty in the final minutes with Colin Blackwell finding a loose puck in front of a scrambling Woll and buries the shot to make it a one goal game.

The feeling didn't last as Nylander scored on an empty net goal to extend the lead to 5-3 and sealing the win.

The Stars will look to rebound from the troublesome loss at home when continuing their homestand against the slumping New York Rangers on Friday.