Robertson Scores Twice as Stars Break 3–3 Tie, Beat Islanders for Fifth Straight Win
GOATIFYFor two periods, the New York Islanders had an answer every time Dallas took the lead. They erased three one-goal deficits, carried a 3–3 tie into the final period and appeared capable of turning Peter DeBoer’s return to Texas into a memorable road result. Then the Stars found the separation they had been threatening all night.
Wyatt Johnston scored the go-ahead goal, Jason Robertson broke free for his second of the evening, and Mikko Rantanen finished a three-goal third period. The 6–3 victory on October 25 gave Dallas five consecutive wins and left the Islanders staring at the difference between staying competitive and actually controlling a game. Robertson’s two goals supplied the headline, but the way Dallas generated its late chances explains why this streak looks increasingly sustainable.
Three Islanders comebacks were undone in nine third-period minutes
Dallas did not win this game by scoring first and protecting the advantage. Tyler Seguin opened the scoring midway through the first period by finishing a two-on-one with captain Jamie Benn, only for 19-year-old defenseman Matthew Schaefer to equalize during four-on-four play. Robertson immediately restored the Stars’ lead by turning a New York mistake behind the net into a close-range finish. The first period ended 2–1, but the Islanders were not finished responding.
Kyle Palmieri collected a lively rebound off the end boards early in the second to make it 2–2. Justin Hryckowian then converted another unusual rebound, this one from Thomas Harley’s point attempt on the power play, to put Dallas ahead for the third time. With a little more than two minutes remaining in the period, Brayden Schenn finished Anthony Duclair’s pass from behind the net. Three Dallas leads, three New York equalizers, and a 3–3 score entering the final 20 minutes: the visitors had done enough to keep the outcome genuinely open.
The decisive change was not simply that Dallas shot more accurately. The Stars began turning possession into cleaner, quicker attacks before the Islanders could settle their defensive structure. Johnston took a pass from Nils Lundkvist and scored from the slot at 4:10 of the third. At 9:45, Seguin released Robertson with a stretch pass, and the winger converted a breakaway to make it 5–3. Rantanen then finished a drop pass from Lian Bichsel at 13:02. What had been a one-goal argument became a three-goal result in less than nine minutes.
That sequence matters because New York’s repeated comebacks were real, not cosmetic. Dallas had to beat an opponent that refused to fold, and the Stars did it by finding a second gear rather than hoping the fourth lead would hold. The final margin flatters neither team’s first 40 minutes; it accurately captures how sharply the balance shifted once Dallas controlled the neutral-zone transitions.
Robertson’s two goals reveal how dangerous Dallas becomes in transition
Robertson’s first goal was about recognition. Schenn attempted to move the puck behind the Islanders’ net during four-on-four play, and the Dallas winger anticipated the pass, knocked it down and finished before New York could reset. It was an attacking play created by defensive awareness: pressure at the right instant turned what should have been a routine exit into a chance from a few feet away.
His second goal was almost the opposite kind of opportunity. Rather than hunting a loose puck near the crease, Robertson attacked the space behind the Islanders’ defense. Seguin spotted the opening, delivered a long pass and gave his teammate a clear route toward Ilya Sorokin. Robertson finished the breakaway, making the score 5–3 and finally giving Dallas breathing room. One goal punished an error in a confined area; the other punished an opponent stretched across the ice. That versatility is what makes a scorer difficult to game-plan against.
The numbers underline the form. Robertson has produced 13 points, including five goals and eight assists, through nine games this season, and the Islanders matchup extended his run of multipoint games to four. His two goals came at very different stages of a match that kept changing shape. Dallas could use him to seize an early lead and then to deliver the blow that ended the late uncertainty.
There is a larger context to this start. Dallas explored significant trade possibilities involving Robertson during the summer before retaining him on a one-year agreement. He entered the campaign after another 40-goal season, with his longer-term future still a major franchise question. That uncertainty does not need to dominate every game story, but it makes the on-ice response particularly revealing. The Stars have a proven high-end finisher, and for now he is turning a potentially distracting contract situation into decisive production.
For opponents, the warning is straightforward: protecting the slot is not enough. Dallas can pressure a breakout, force a turnover behind the goal line or stretch a defense through the middle. Robertson needs only one clean read to make any of those routes costly.
Schaefer made history, but the Islanders could not protect their own answers
New York left Dallas with a defeat, but Matthew Schaefer supplied a remarkable individual moment. The 19-year-old scored during four-on-four play in the first period, moving to 25 career goals in 93 NHL games. That total took him past Bobby Orr for the second-most goals by a teenage defenseman in league history, behind Phil Housley’s 46. Schaefer’s attacking instincts are not a future promise; they are already producing records.
The goal itself showed why he is so difficult to contain. Schaefer joined the attack, carried the puck down the left side and found a shooting lane above Jake Oettinger’s shoulder. It was not a lucky point shot through traffic. He used his skating and timing to create the angle, then finished with the confidence of a forward. His contribution was especially valuable because the Islanders needed offense from several areas to stay level.
Palmieri and Schenn also scored, while Bo Horvat contributed two assists. New York’s ability to answer three Dallas goals says something positive about its resilience. Yet the same scoreboard tells a harsher story about the defending. Sorokin made 32 saves on 38 shots, and the Islanders repeatedly had to recover from breakdowns rather than dictate where the game was played. The three-goal final period exposed how quickly a competitive road performance can disappear when rush coverage fails.
The Islanders had been on a five-game point streak before arriving in Dallas. This was their first regulation loss in that stretch and a reminder that collecting points is not the same as solving the underlying issues. Schaefer’s rise gives the blue line a dynamic attacking element, but it does not remove the responsibility to protect the middle of the ice and finish defensive-zone possessions cleanly.
For a young defenseman, that is part of the difficult balance. His ability to join the rush creates goals that few players at his position can manufacture. The team around him must make those attacking contributions count by preventing the opponent from answering with an even cleaner rush at the other end.
DeBoer’s return showed the difference between Dallas’s depth and New York’s margin for error
Peter DeBoer knew the building and many of the players better than almost any visiting coach could. He led Dallas for three seasons, reaching the Western Conference Final in each, before his departure in 2025. His return as the Islanders’ coach added an obvious emotional subplot, but the game eventually became an illustration of the roster strengths his former club still possesses.
Dallas did not rely on Robertson alone. Seguin scored and later created the breakaway goal. Johnston supplied the winner after a season in which he scored a career-high 45 goals. Hryckowian added a power-play goal, while Rantanen finished the scoring with his team-leading sixth goal of the campaign. Roope Hintz assisted twice. A team with that many credible scoring routes can survive an uneven stretch because the next dangerous shift does not have to come from the same line.
The details behind the sixth goal are telling. Rantanen took Bichsel’s drop pass and finished from a dangerous area after Dallas had already seized control. It was his 322nd NHL goal, moving him past Olli Jokinen for third among Finland-born players. That milestone did not decide the game, but it underlined the caliber of the player arriving as another threat after Johnston and Robertson had done the decisive damage.
Dallas also managed the less glamorous work. The Stars killed all three Islanders power plays and extended their penalty-killing streak to 20 consecutive successful kills across five games. They entered the third period tied despite several defensive lapses, then tightened their execution while continuing to attack. Glen Gulutzan’s team was not perfect for 60 minutes, but it demonstrated a valuable habit: recognize the part of the game that is slipping and correct it before the opponent can turn the pressure into a result.
The next challenge is maintaining that depth through absences. Radek Faksa and Sam Steel missed the game, and their availability for Tuesday’s meeting with New Jersey was uncertain afterward. Dallas still dressed two NHL debutants, Dylan Hryckowian and Matthew Seminoff, and found enough offense to score six. The Islanders could not match that combination of finishing, flexibility and late-game control. For DeBoer, the uncomfortable part of the return was not the reception; it was seeing his new team repeatedly give his old team the exact transition opportunities it wanted.
Five straight wins do not guarantee Dallas will maintain this pace over an 84-game season. The Stars still allowed three equalizers and did not dominate every shift. But the closing period against New York offered a persuasive example of what their best hockey can look like: a balanced attack, a scorer in Robertson who punishes different kinds of mistakes, and enough discipline to turn a tied game into a convincing victory.
The Islanders can take encouragement from Schaefer’s record and the fight they showed through two periods. Their harder assignment is preventing a repeat of the third. Dallas hosts New Jersey next; New York travels to Nashville. Both teams leave with something clear to study, but only one has a five-game winning streak to show for it.
