DALLAS (AP) Jamie Benn heard the Dallas home crowd beginning to boo when it appeared that the Stars would continue their power outage.
They turned things around in the end with a late surge.
Benn and Devin Shore scored power-play goals in the third period and the Stars beat the Anaheim Ducks 2-1 on Friday night.
The Stars had been shut out in their previous game and were scoreless for more than 48 minutes in this one. They appeared to squander their first power play until just 2 seconds remained, when Shore tipped in a pass from Tyler Seguin to tie the game.
”It wasn’t going well for probably for probably 1:57 of that,” Benn said. ”We heard the boo birds coming out there from our fans, but I think we put a smile on their faces and got them pretty excited.”
There was more excitement with 5:37 remaining on another power play as Benn deflected John Klingberg’s shot past Anaheim goalie Ryan Miller.
”Klingberg was allowed to walk to the middle of the ice,” Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said, ”and Benn got his stick on it.
”That was basically it for the hockey game.”
Ryan Getzlaf scored Anaheim’s goal in the first period.
Both teams entered with 80 points, but Dallas increased its lead for the first wild card from the Western Conference to three points over Los Angeles. Anaheim remained one point ahead of the Kings for third place in the Pacific Division.
Miller made 35 saves 16 days after shutting out the Stars with 41 saves in Anaheim. Kari Lehtonen stopped 26 shots for Dallas.
”(Miller’s) a good goalie,” Benn said. ”He made a lot of saves for the second game in a row that we’ve seen him, but I don’t think we were really frustrated out there.”
The third-period power plays were the only ones for the Stars in the game. The Kings had killed all 25 of their opponents’ man advantages in the previous nine games. Dallas had been successful on only four of 36 power plays (11 percent) over 13 games.
The Stars were successful without special-teams standout Mattias Janmark, who was out with the flu. But their four leading scorers – Seguin, Benn, Klingberg and Alexander Radulov – along with Shore were on the ice for both goals.
”We’ve relied all year on our big boys to come through at the right time,” Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock said, ”and that’s exactly what they did today.”
Getzlaf scored at 17:16 of the first period. Rickard Rakell started the play by passing out to Corey Perry at the Ducks’ blue line. Going 2-on-1 against Dallas defenseman Greg Pateryn, Perry dropped the puck to Getzlaf entering the Stars’ zone. Pateryn went to the ice to block a shot, but Getzlaf lifted a wrist shot over Pateryn and Lehtonen’s right shoulder into the upper-left corner of the net.
Anaheim outshot Dallas 10-9 in the first period, but the Stars came out firing in the second. They peppered Miller with 17 shots on goal to just five for the Ducks. Miller stopped all of them.
”I thought as the game went on we showed a lot more offensive determination, tenacity,” Hitchcock said. ”We drew some penalties because of it. I just thought we looked relentless.”
NOTES: The Stars had no healthy scratches. The players sidelined were Janmark, D Marc Methot (lower-body injury) and G Ben Bishop (knee). Bishop will make Dallas’ longest trip of the season and may be able to play before the team returns home on March 23. Dallas C Martin Hanzal will undergo season-ending spinal fusion. … Getzlaf has two goals and 10 assists in his last five games. … Rakell played in his 300th NHL game. He celebrated with an assist on Getzlaf’s goal, giving him eight goals and 11 assists in a six-game point streak. … Dallas’ penalty killers were 19 for 20 in the previous five games, and 3 for 3 on Friday. … Seguin assisted on both goals. . Ducks D Josh Manson left in the third period after he fell on to the back of Stars LW Remi Elie’s skate, but Manson returned to the game.
UP NEXT
Ducks: Begin a four-game homestand on Monday against St. Louis.
Stars: Begin a six-game trip on Sunday at Pittsburgh.
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