Jamie Benn made his case for a berth on the Canadian Olympic Team at the home of Hockey Canada on Thursday night. The Dallas Stars' captain had six points, four of them assists on goals by linemate Tyler Seguin, in a 7-3 rout of the Calgary Flames. Benn didn't receive an invite to come to Calgary for Canada's Olympic orientation camp in August. But with Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning potentially sidelined due to a broken right leg suffered this week, Benn made his case for a spot on the Olympic team.
"There's obviously so many great players
in this League that can get picked," Benn said. "There
was obviously some pretty high talent at that camp in the summer so
it is what it is. I just came into camp this year with a focus of
being the best player I can be. I'm just trying to get better each
and every day. It's going to be an honor if you do get picked for
this team, but for me and Tyler right now, our focus is on the Dallas
Stars and trying to make this team win hockey games. So far so
good, lately."
Seguin, acquired from the Boston Bruins during the
summer, might have opened some eyes as well; he also had an assist
for a five-point night. But he pointed to Benn as the star of the
night.
"Obviously you've got to look at Benny's
night," said Seguin, the second player chosen in the 2010
NHL Draft. "He was making some incredible passes out there.
Some of the plays I was just fortunate enough to finish them off."
Stephane
Robidas and Ryan
Garbutt also scored for the Stars (10-7-2), who have won five of
six and are 2-0-0 on a three-game trip through Western Canada. Matt
Stajan had two goals and David
Jones also scored for the Flames (6-10-3), who have dropped five
straight, including three in a row at Scotiabank Saddledome.
"We just got outworked," Flames
forward Lee
Stempniak said. "The same story. We had a bad first
period, didn't play smart, didn't play hard. That's a talented team.
They took advantage of the odd-man rushes. Then same story, too
little, too late in the third. We've got to find that desperation at
the start of the game."
Though the Stars were playing the second half of a
back-to-back after beating the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 on Wednesday, it
was Calgary that struggled from the drop of the puck for a second
straight game. Two nights after managing six shots through two
periods against the San Jose Sharks, the Flames needed nearly five
minutes to record their first shot on Kari
Lehtonen.
"You've got to look at it as being
mental," Stempniak said. "We shouldn't be tired. We
shouldn't have excuses. We need to go out there and have that
mentality right from the start."
Dallas opened the scoring at 6:27 after a pair of
Flames lapses.
Benn picked up a Sean
Monahan turnover just inside the Stars' blue line, raced up the
ice and fired a shot that was turned away by Reto
Berra. But Dennis
Wideman cleared the rebound right onto the stick of Brenden
Dillon on the boards, and he quickly fed Robidas for a one-time
blast that beat a screened Berra and gave Dallas a 1-0 lead. The goal
marked the fourth straight game and 11th in their past 14 that the
Flames have given up the first goal. In fact, it took the Flames
until 11:48 to record their second shot of the period, a deflection
by Jones that Lehtonen easily handled. Defenseman Shane
O'Brien tested Lehtonen twice late in the first period before the
Stars blew the game open in the second. Seguin got his first of the
night at 1:19 when he lifted his own rebound over Berra after picking
up Benn's original shot in traffic. That extended his goal-scoring
streak to three games. The duo connected again at 4:25. Alex
Goligoski intercepted a TJ
Galiardi pass in the neutral zone and fed Seguin, who sprung Benn
in alone on Berra. Benn beat the Flames goalie with a backhand deke
for his seventh of the season at a 3-0 lead. At 8:32, Benn found
Seguin with a cross-ice pass in the high slot for a wrister that
found the back of the net to give Dallas a 4-0 lead and send Berra to
the bench.
"To be honest, we were happy we won in
Edmonton," Seguin said. "But for Benn and I, sitting
here together, we didn't like the way we completely played last game
and I thought the first we were OK and talked about it and the
second, we just came out rolling."
Karri
Ramo didn't fare much better in relief. Garbutt took a pass from
Antoine
Roussel, went in alone and beat Ramo for his second of the season
at 11:56. Stajan ended Lehtonen's bid for back-to-back shutouts at
15:01, blasting a slap shot from the top of the faceoff circle past
his glove. That snapped Lehtonen's shutout streak at 96:42. Seguin
struck early in the third, too, burying Valeri
Nichushkin's rebound from a sharp angle just 30 seconds in to
complete his hat trick. After Jones and Stajan scored to make it 6-3,
Seguin and Benn completed their big night when Seguin snapped a pass
from Benn past Ramo with 3:39 remaining for a power-play goal and a
new career-high.
"It's definitely not that easy,"
Seguin said. "It's hard to score in this League, but
sometimes you get your good bounces.
With the game over Shane O'Brien decided to act the goon and had a fight with Antoine Roussel 15:34 in the second. Roussel would later fight Mike Cammalleri 4:37 in the third while, Brenden Dillon and Lee Stempniak both went toe-to-toe. Jamie Benn ended the game with 1+5, meaning he had a hand in all but one Stars goals, His line-mate Tyler Seguin finished with 4
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