Jake Oettinger doesn’t spend much time in the six-goal club.
That changed Thursday night at American Airlines Center, where the Winnipeg Jets chased the Dallas Stars goalie after he gave up six in an 8-3 loss. It was a rare rough night for the seven-year NHL veteran and Olympic gold medalist, whose season goals-against average sits at 2.33 and whose career mark is 2.51. Oettinger has still never allowed seven in an NHL game, though several Hall of Famers have hit that number.
The six-goal outings are scattered enough to make them stand out. Thursday was his seventh regular-season game allowing six, and it came after a near year-long gap since the last one.
That previous instance came on Nov. 6, 2025, in a 7-5 loss to the Anaheim Ducks at home. Before that, it was Nov. 1, 2024, when the Florida Panthers beat the Stars 6-4 at American Airlines Center.
The pattern has been hard to miss: at least one six-goal game in each of the past few seasons, and all of them in November.
His toughest stretch came in 2023-24, when he posted a career-worst 2.72 GAA and was tagged for six goals three times. The first was on Nov. 24, 2023, in a 7-4 home loss to the Calgary Flames.
He was hit for six again on Dec. 9, 2023, in a 6-1 defeat to the Vegas Golden Knights. Then came Mar. 5, 2024, when the San Jose Sharks beat the Stars 7-6 in overtime on the road.
That season looked different from the one before it. In 2022-23, Oettinger’s high-water mark was five goals against, and that happened eight times.
His first six-goal game came earlier still, on Mar. 12, 2022 against the New York Rangers in a 7-4 loss. He was 24 then and appearing in his 59th NHL game.
The regular season isn’t the only place it’s happened. Oettinger has also been charged with six goals twice in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The most recent came in Game 3 of the 2025 Western Conference Final, when the Edmonton Oilers grabbed a 2-1 series lead with a 6-1 win at Rogers Place. Edmonton won the next two to return to the Final.
Before that, the Vegas Golden Knights closed out the Stars in Game 6 of the 2023 Western Conference Final with a 6-0 win at American Airlines Center to take the Clarence Campbell Bowl.
Thursday was Oettinger’s 319th NHL regular-season game, and his record now stands at 193-81-34. Even with that kind of success, the number of six-goal nights remains small: seven in the regular season, nine total when the postseason is included.
For perspective, Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur had 15 six-goal games, including two in the playoffs, while Marc-Andre Fleury had 31, including six in the postseason. Great goalies have off nights too - Oettinger just doesn’t have many of them.
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