Radulov lifts Stars to 2-1 victory over Flames

Alexander Radulov scored a power-play goal in the third period to lead the Dallas Stars to a 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames on Friday at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Defenceman Esa Lindell also scored for the Stars (6-5-0), who had lost two straight games including a 54 decision to the Oilers one night earlier in Edmonton. It was Lindell’s second goal in as many games and third of the season.

Making just his second start in net for the Stars, goalie Kari Lehtonen made 29 saves to improve his record to 1-4. He lost his only other start of the season and was also tagged with two other losses in relief appearances of Ben Bishop.

Johnny Gaudreau scored for Calgary (56-0), while goalie Mike Smith finished with 22 saves.

The Flames outshot the Stars 118 in the first period and nearly scored a late goal, but Lehtonen got his blocker to stop a long-range shot through traffic by Matt Stajan.

The Stars pushed back early in the second period but were kept off the scoresheet by Smith, who made a pad save to stop a shot from the slot by Devin Shore before also snagging a point shot by Mark Methot out of the air with his glove hand.

Gaudreau opened the scoring for the Flames at 10:18 of the second when he wired a perfect shot to the top corner, glove side past Lehtonen.

Shortly after Lehtonen stopped Mikael Backlund’s short-handed breakaway attempt, Lindell blasted a point shot through traffic past Smith during the same power play for the Stars at 16:51 of the second.

Radulov then took a pass from Shore and snapped a shot to the top corner over Smith’s outstretched glove hand for the game-winning goal at 12:50 of the third.

Lehtonen made a shoulder save to stop a shot off the stick of Matthew Tkachuk with 3.3 seconds left in the game to preserve the victory.