Third-period goals give Stars victory over Ducks
>> NEW YORK: Jamie Benn’s power-play goal with 5:37 minutes to play on a redirected shot by John Klingberg was the difference as the Dallas Stars came from behind to beat the Anaheim Ducks 2-1 on Friday at the American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas.
Dallas cemented their hold on the first wild card into the play-offs from the Western Conference and remained in fourth place in the Central Division. The Stars have won just two of their past five, with three of those games, and two of the losses, coming in overtime.
Ryan Getzlaf got the Ducks on the board with 2:44 minutes to play in the first period when he skated down the right wing and wired a wrist shot over the blocker of Dallas goaltender Kari Lehtonen. Corey Perry and Rikard Rakell got assists on the goal.
After a scoreless second period, Dallas tied the match with 11:10 minutes to play in the third period on a power-play goal by Devin Shore, who deflected a pass by Tyler Seguin past Anaheim netminder Ryan Miller. Benn was granted an assist on the tally.
Meanwhile, Eric Staal’ s second-period goal stood up as the winner as visiting Minnesota downed Vancouver 5-2.
Staal broke a 2-2 tie at 15:38 minutes of the middle frame as he got a piece of teammate Mikael Granlund’s shot while tangling with Canucks defenceman Troy Stecher.
The marker was the 17th in 18 games for the 33-year-old Staal, who is challenging for the NHL goal-scoring lead with 37, three behind leader Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.
Sam Bennett and Matt Stajan gave their team much-needed secondary scoring and rookie goalie David Rittich again surrendered only one goal as visiting Calgary beat Ottawa 2-1.
Defenceman Seth Jones scored twice as Columbus edged visiting Detroit 3-2 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. Jones notched his second career two-goal game when he tallied twice in the second period.