Tyler Seguin scored two goals, Jason Spezza had two assists and Antti Niemi made 33 saves to help the Dallas Stars to a 5-1 win against the Nashville Predators at American Airlines Center.
After Nashville opened the scoring midway through the second period, Dallas ran off five unanswered goals. Jamie Benn and Mattias Janmark scored in the second, and Patrick Eaves scored early in the third period before Seguin put the game away. Pekka Rinne made 27 saves for the Predators. Janmark put Dallas ahead to stay with 2:32 remaining in the second period when he roofed a Spezza pass into the top right corner for his ninth goal, breaking a 1-1 tie. It was Janmark's sixth goal in December.
Nashville took a 1-0 lead when Craig Smith beat Niemi with a backhand at 11:22 of the second. A pass from Nashville's Filip Forsberg deflected off the stick of Dallas defenseman Alex Goligoski and landed at the skates of former Star Mike Ribeiro. He fed Smith in the slot, and Smith pulled Niemi away from the paint enough to maneuver around him and finish with a backhand.
Dallas tied it 1:31 later when Benn beat Rinne to the short side with a wrist shot from the left circle. It was Benn's League-leading 24th goal, one more than Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks and Seguin.
After Eaves made it 3-1 at 3:56 of the third period, Seguin scored at 8:03 when he collected his own rebound and slipped the puck inside the far post. A lengthy video review determined that puck completely crossed the goal line. Seguin scored his second of the game and 23rd of the season with 4:04 remaining in regulation, beating Rinne through the five-hole with a wrist shot from the right circle.
One thing Laviolette found particularly disconcerting about this loss was that two of the Dallas goals resulted directly from Nashville turnovers.
Shea Weber appeared in his 723rd NHL game, tying him with Martin Erat for second-most in franchise history.
Valeri Nichushkin did not play in the third period due to a lower-body injury. Ruff said Nichushkin is day-to-day. The Stars begin a three-game road trip at the New Jersey Devils on Saturday, the same night the Predators visit the Carolina Hurricanes.
Stars Quotes
Tyler Seguin: "We're a good team at bouncing back. We didn't really play good at all in Columbus [a 6-3 loss on Tuesday]. We had to get back to playing our game. [Rinne's] a heck of a goalie over there, and it's always nice when you get anything on him."Lindy Ruff: "We got back to our game, took care of our own end first. And it all starts there. It was a pretty tight game. With the schedule for both teams, you could see not the most energy those first two periods, but we played the game the right way and ended up with a win we needed. It was important to have a response right after they scored. Jamie got in alone there. That put some life in the building for us. I thought that really got us going."
Mattias Janmark: "It's been a good month. I don't feel like I've played much better than in November or October. I got off to a good start in October. And November, I felt like I played good. I just couldn't get the puck in the net. So, it's nice to get the goals in."
Jason Spezza: "[Eaves] has kind of been in and out of our line for the majority of the last month. He's a smart player. He's got a great shot. Lindy juggled [the lines] a little bit, and it worked out."
Preds Quotes"We knew that going in, it's the one thing that we harped [on], the neutral zone was going to be a big thing and we turned the puck over too much. They're a fast team and they go back the other way, we missed some coverages too. From the turnovers, we gave up odd-man rushes."
Mike Fisher: "You got to have your game coming here into this building. We know that and we didn't have our A game. We got to find it. We got to find it more regularly if we're going to climb the standings."
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