Joe Pavelski notched his sixth career hat trick, and first with Dallas, and added an assist, as the visiting Stars continued their strong start with a 5-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.
Entering with nine goals and 12 assists in 21 career games versus Montreal, the 38-year-old Pavelski scored in each period for his first hat trick since Feb. 24, 2019, at Detroit, while with San Jose.
Jason Robertson added a goal with an assist, Roope Hintz and Jamie Benn each had two assists, Esa Lindell also scored and Jake Oettinger made 32 saves for the Stars, who have earned at least one point in their opening five contests (4-0-1) for the first time since 2009-10.
Meanwhile, Arber Xhekaj recorded his first career goal, and had an assist, while Mike Hoffman also scored for Montreal, which suffered its first home defeat in four tries. The Canadiens have split their first six games of 2022-23.
After killing off the game’s first penalty, Dallas converted its initial attempt with the man-advantage. Off a pass from Benn, Pavelski sent in a backhander by Montreal’s Jake Allen (25 saves) just 4:24 into the contest.
The Canadiens evened things with 4:25 remaining in the first. On the transition off a turnover, Hoffman put home the rebound of Jake Evans’ streaking shot.
Pavelski, though, gave Dallas back the lead just 18 seconds into the second. From a Hintz backhanded pass, which appeared intended for Robertson, Pavelski sent a drive from the high slot by Allen. Roughly 4 1/2 minutes later, Pavelski and Benn helped set up Robertson for the Stars’ second power-play goal of the evening.
Montreal got within one with 4:02 remaining before the second intermission via Xhekaj’s snap shot from the point. However, the Canadiens failed to secure the long rebound of a shot from Lindell, who got the puck back and beat Allen with just 17 seconds remaining in the second.
Pavelski completed his three-goal night on a partial breakawa, with 13:07 left in regulation.
–Field Level Media
