Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza each had a goal and an assist, and Kari Lehtonen made 21 saves to help the Dallas Stars defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 at American Airlines Center on Friday. Antoine Roussel and Ales Hemsky scored for Dallas, which led 4-0 in the second period, chasing Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford, who made 16 saves. Teuvo Teravainen and Tomas Fleischmann scored for Chicago.
Dallas scored on two of six power plays and killed five Chicago advantages.
Dallas completes a Central Division back-to-back Saturday against the St. Louis Blues, who defeated the Anaheim Ducks 5-2 on Friday. The Stars have 90 points, the Blues have 89 and the Blackhawks have 88 in the top three places in the division.
Spezza gave Dallas a 1-0 lead with his 26th goal of the season, a wrist shot from the high slot with the Stars on the power play at 11:08 of the first period. Roussel's 12th goal of the season 1:09 into the second period made it 2-0. He roofed a pass from Hemsky into the upper left corner.
Seguin and Benn each scored his 33rd goal of the season in the second period. Seguin scored at 5:06 with a wrist shot from the slot through Crawford's five-hole. Benn scored when a Seguin pass deflected off his left skate at 10:42 with the Stars on the power play. Spezza assisted on Seguin's goal for his 800th NHL point. Scott Darling replaced Crawford after Benn's goal; Darling made 10 saves. Chicago has killed 26 of 42 (61.9 percent) of opposing power plays over the past 13 games.
Chicago made it 4-1 when Teravainen scored his 11th goal on a quick slap shot near the far post at 13:01 of the second period, 37 seconds after Seguin hit the post. Darling left the ice with 8:10 remaining in the third period, but in nearly two minutes with an extra attacker the Blackhawks couldn't score. Darling returned with 6:11 left. Hemsky caught Darling heading to the bench with 4:31 remaining and scored into the empty net.
Fleischmann scored his 12th of the season with 58 seconds remaining to make it 5-2. Ruff challenged the goal, claiming Dale Weise interfered with Lehtonen, but after a short review the call on the ice was upheld. Marian Hossa played 15:30 in his return from a nine-game absence caused by a leg injury.
Hawks Quotes
Joel Quenneville: "The St. Louis game (a 3-2 shootout loss Wednesday) was all right, but tonight's game was not good at all. Our special teams had probably as bad a night as you could have."Jonathan Toews: "Well, yeah. I mean, we definitely have to focus on it more. That's what it comes down to. Obviously, heading into the last number of games and the postseason, it's going to be a huge part of our game going forward."
Marian Hossa: "Nobody's panicking here. Obviously, we just have to be better in those things [special teams]. We've got a great team here. We're in a good spot, a good situation. We just have to be better than we were tonight."
Stars Quotes
Jason Spezza: "They're a team we have a lot of respect for, and they're a tough team to play against. Special teams was good, penalty kill got some huge kills at the start of the game. It was a good win for us."Lindy Ruff: "St. Louis might be the best team in the League right now [with] the way they're playing, and they're healthier. [Saturday the] task is going to be even a little more daunting than putting things together the way we did [against Chicago], changing lines around and coming up with the effort we did."
"We matched up well. Our speed has been good against them. We've been able to create some holes and put them under pressure. Our forecheck pressure resulted in a couple really nice goals."
"We got done what we wanted to get done. I thought we slowed their attack and won the special-teams battle. That was a real big team effort from goaltender through the defense, our young defense. I thought the forwards did a heck of a job supporting them."
Jamie Benn: "Every chance [you] get to play the Blackhawks, you want to come out with a good effort and I thought we did that tonight. It was nice [to end a seven-game goal drought]. I think I was more excited when [Seguin] scored and when the other guys scored than when I did. They're not pretty all the time, and you'll take what I can get. Even if it's kicking one in, I'll take it."
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