Dallas Stars @ Vancouver Canucks 2-0 - 12/17

Dallas Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen has struggled with his confidence at times this season, but the Vancouver Canucks helped him find it early in their game Wednesday. Lehtonen made 11 of his 27 saves in the first period and Colton Sceviour scored early in the second to lead the Stars to a 2-0 win against the Canucks at Rogers Arena. Lehtonen came in ranked 38th in the NHL with a .902 save percentage, well below his .914 career average, and had given up 34 goals in his previous 10 starts. But he was brilliant with the Canucks buzzing early, stopping two breakaways in the second period and making 12 saves in the third for his second shutout of the season. Antoine Roussel scored an empty-net goal with 26 seconds left for the Stars, who have won three of their past four games. Dallas (12-13-5) has won six straight games against Vancouver. The Stars, who have the NHL's worst goals-against average, spent three straight practice days last week focused on improving their defensive play. But for the most part Wednesday, they leaned on Lehtonen, especially when they were outshot 11-5 in the first period. After he robbed Vrbata in the game's first minute, Lehtonen denied Chris Higgins from the slot and turned aside a great Linden Vey chance in the opening six minutes. He later got a blocker on Higgins' shot on a shorthanded 2-on-0 break. Lehtonen threw out the right pad to turn away a Daniel Sedin redirect with Vancouver on the power play late in the first period, and Dallas regrouped in intermission. Lehtonen made another good save with the glove against Jannik Hansen when the Canucks forward came in alone after stripping the puck from Stars rookie defenseman Jyrki Jokipakka at the blue line 2:44 into the second period. Dallas opened the scoring on a bad goal nine seconds later and controlled play the rest of the period. Sceviour threw a backhand at the net from a sharp angle after cutting in off the left wing, and Eddie Lack, reaching down to scoop the puck off the ice, instead had it bounce into the net off the edge of his glove. Lack felt he played well after that goal, but it wasn't enough to prevent Vancouver (18-11-2) from losing its fifth straight game (0-4-1). It was Sceviour's second goal of the season. He has three points in the past five games, matching his total from the first 22 games of the season. The Stars' Tyler Seguin, who leads the NHL in goals (23) and points (38), hit the crossbar behind Lack at the end of a first-period power play. He was held without a point for the first time in five games. For all the focus on the Stars' scoring ability, Dallas coach Lindy Ruff was more impressed with the job they did defending, at least after Lehtonen bailed them out in the first period. After dominating the first period, Vancouver managed four shots in the second, but Lehtonen still had to turn aside Alexandre Burrows on a clear-cut breakaway in the final minute of the period. The Canucks had 12 shots in the third period, but they couldn't beat Lehtonen and fell to 0-4-1 in their past five. Vancouver was 0-for-4 on the power play and has not scored on the man advantage in six games. Lehtonen played a big part in it too, he made a glove save to rob Radim Vrbata 36 seconds in.
Two fights broke out in the opening period. The first at, 10:10 was caused when Curtis McKenzie boarded Luca Sbisa, with the latter taking exception to the hit and exchanging pleasantries (both received fighting majors). The second was at 14:30, when Derek Dorsett interfered with Jason Demers, provoking a roughing call on both players.

Stars Quotes

Kari Lehtonen: "That's always huge when you are able to make a great first save. That gave me lots of confidence and that carried later on in the game. It was nice to be able to make good saves in the first when we were not playing great and then after that I think we played really well and dominated the second period. It was a nice road win. Those things happen so fast and I try to be patient and see what they do, and I was able to get a move sideways and get a blocker on the puck [the save on Higgins]. At that point I was feeling really confident and good, and it was lots of fun after that. We had a good chat in the locker room. We gave them too much odd-man rushes and breakaways. We had a good kill at the start of the second. I don't know what the guys did, but they started playing really well and made it easier for me."
Colton Sceviour: "That first period we could have come out in a hole and a tough spot. [Lehtonen] made some huge saves early on. That's something we were able to rally behind between the first and second. I'm not a guy that's going to have a ridiculously high shooting percentage. You get the puck to the net and good things happen at times. I was fortunate."
Lindy Ruff: "He gave us a fighting chance in the first period to win a hockey game, and the second period we answered the bell by going after them pretty good. We've been working hard playing defense in the offensive zone, controlling the puck and zone time. We did a lot better job of that. We had some shifts that we totally finished in the offensive zone. There was a lot of good things, a lot of good shot blocks, and the defending in the last 40 minutes was pretty good."