Stars rally past Penguins 3-2, snapping 10-game win streak

DALLAS (AP) — Roope Hintz and Joe Pavelski scored 1:15 apart late in the third period and the Dallas Stars stopped Pittsburgh’s winning streak at 10 games, beating the Penguins 3-2 on Saturday.

Hintz scored on a backhander with 3:46 left after Pavelski converted off a rebound with 5:01 to go, sending the Stars to their fourth straight win. Hintz and Pavelski share the team lead with 13 goals, and it was Hintz’s fourth winner this season.

“In the first (period), we were just giving them a little bit too much respect,” Stars coach Rick Bowness said. “Then I think in the second and the third, we started to play Dallas Stars hockey.”

Denis Gurianov also scored and Jake Oettinger stopped 27 shots for Dallas. Jason Robertson assisted on all three goals and has a 10-game home points streak.

The two third-period goals capped a period in which Dallas outshot Pittsburgh 15-8 after being outshot 21-17 before in the first two.

“Our game got better as it went,” said Pavelski, who has four goals and four assists in the last five games. “There was a lot of energy in the building.”

Brian Dumoulin and Kasperi Kapanen scored in a 25-second span early in the first period for the Penguins. Tristan Jarry made 29 saves.

Pittsburgh had the NHL’s longest winning streak this season. It is 18-1-1 when leading after two periods and 18-2 when scoring first.

“I don’t think we had the juice that we normally have throughout the course of the 60 minutes,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We knew this was going to be a challenge and that this would take a lot of effort and energy to win.”

Before the game, the Penguins added forwards Bryan Rust and Brock McGinn to their COVID-19 protocol list. Rust had seven goals and four assists in Pittsburgh’s last three games after missing the previous 11 with a lower-body injury.

Rust was the third NHL player in the expansion era to record 11 or more points in the first three games of a calendar year, joining Wayne Gretzky (11…