ANAHEIM — It was a Friday Night Fight at Honda Center between two of the West Conference’s best teams, but the Ducks never answered the bell against the Dallas Stars, who coasted to an 8-3 victory.
The Ducks remained in a points tie for first place in the Pacific Division, but the Vegas Golden Knights now have three games in hand. Dallas has gone 11-2-1 in its past 14 decisions and trails only Colorado Avalanche in the Central Division as well as the league standings overall.
Ryan Poehling, Beckett Sennecke and Mikael Granlund each scored for the hosts, who have lost four of their past five games. Lukáš Dostál made only a brief appearance before being relieved by Petr Mrázek in his first action since Nov. 30 (lower-body injury). Each netminder surrendered four goals as the Ducks set their season-high with the eight allowed.
Arcadia product Jason Robertson had two goals and an assist to pace Dallas, which improved to an NHL-best 13-2-4 on the road. Roope Hintz and Thomas Harley both chipped in a goal and an assist. Oskar Bäck and Adam Erne and former Ducks Sam Steel and Ilya Lyubushkin all scored a goal apiece. Radek Faksa, Miro Heiskanen and Mikko Rantanen each contributed two assists. Casey DeSmith made 23 saves.
Less than five minutes into the contest, it was 2-1 in favor of the visitors thanks to three combined goals in just over two minutes. By the time the first intermission rolled around, Dallas had extended its lead to 4-1.
An overeager Robertson put the Stars shorthanded with a penalty in the deepest part of the offensive zone, but Dallas opened the scoring down a man.
Leo Carlsson’s neutral-zone giveaway led to a dump-in, after which Faksa disrupted the exchange between Dostál and Jacob Trouba. He picked Trouba’s pocket and found Bäck in front to open the scoring 2:37 after the puck dropped.
Fifty-five seconds later, forecheck pressure led to captain Radko Gudas’ shot, creating a rebound for Poehling. He kicked the puck across an outstretched DeSmith and popped it home for his second goal as a Duck.
Just 1:10 after that, Hintz put the Stars back in front for good after Robertson’s saucer pass set up Hintz’s bullet from the slot.
Steel took a chip off the wall and drove all the way from the red line to the front of the net. He was pushed from behind by Chris Kreider and knocked the net off its moorings, crashing into the twine just after the puck crossed the line. His goal was upheld upon official review at 12:41.
Granlund showed that Finns can also serve up a pizza when his turnover smack in the middle of the neutral zone went to his countryman Rantanen. He gained the zone and waited for the trailing Harley, who glided into the inner part of the right circle for a goal that chased Dostál from the game, 14:19 after it began.
Dallas would slather on three more goals in the second period, at the 11:10, 15:10 and 18:30 marks. In all, they scored seven goals on 15 shots through 40 minutes.
First, it was Dallas’ big three – Heiskanen, Rantanen and Robertson – connecting on the power play. Robertson found a weakly deflected puck in the slot and transitioned from backhand to forehand between his legs for a man-advantage marker.
Robertson added another jaw-dropping goal at even strength four minutes later after Pavel Mintyukov’s weak backhand was devoured by Hintz, who found Robertson gracefully entering the zone. He skated across the hashmarks and further victimized Mintyukov before lifting a backhand for his 22nd goal of 2025-26, tying him for third in the NHL.
Erne made it 7-1 at the second intermission after a Harley point shot was tipped by Steel onto the blade of Erne, who pivoted into a goal.
A mere 61 seconds into the third period, the Ducks clawed back a score with Sennecke’s one-timer off the rush, but his NHL rookie-leading 11th goal of the campaign gave little cause for celebration.
Even that tempered excitement proved ephemeral as 41 seconds afterward, Lyubushkin beat Mrázek short side from a sharp angle for his first goal this season to make good on the two-point conversion for Dallas.
With 13:19 to play, the Ducks finally caught a break when Matt Duchene’s power-play goal was disallowed on review for not having completely crossed the goal line.
Jackson LaCombe’s wrist shot from high in the left circle was tipped high and then pushed in low by Granlund for an academic goal with 5:40 remaining.
More to come on this story.