Stars use power play to knock off Ducks
Win gives Dallas a leg up on Kings for first wild card spot, while Anaheim holds steady.
DALLAS— 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 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 two 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 Ducks goalie Ryan Miller.
“Klingberg was allowed to walk to the middle of the ice,” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said, “and Benn got his stick on it.
“That was basically it for the hockey game.”
Ryan Getzlaf scored the Ducks’ 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 the Kings.
The Ducks 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.”
Getzlaf scored at 17:16 of the first period, assisted by Rickard Rakell and Corey Perry.