Kari Lehtonen had 23 saves for his first shutout of the season to help the Dallas Stars to a 3-0 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center. The Stars (10-10-6) went 1-2-1 on their four-game road trip and are 4-7-4 on road this season. Colorado (9-13-1) went 0-4-1 on its homestand and lost defenseman Erik Johnson to a broken fibula in the second period. He's expected to miss 6-8 weeks. Lehtonen, who has 35 NHL shutouts, ended a personal three-game losing streak. He has two wins in his past five games, both against Colorado. He had 34 saves in a 3-2 home win against the Avalanche Nov. 17. Curtis McKenzie, a healthy scratch in six of the previous seven games, gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 5:08 of the first period when he converted his own rebound for his second goal of the season. The Stars went ahead 2-0 on Tyler Seguin's power-play goal at 6:02 of the second period with the Avalanche's Rene Bourque off for slashing. Dallas had been 2-for-17 on the power play in seven games before Seguin scored his ninth goal of the season. Patrick Eaves scored into an empty net with 1:22 remaining for his 10th goal. The Avalanche have allowed the first goal in 17 of 23 games and were limited to five shots each in the second and third periods. They had 23 total.
* The Stars were on a power play when Jamie Benn had the puck in the right corner. He made a diagonal pass to Seguin in the left circle for a one-timer that beat goalie Semyon Varlamov to the stick side.
* After permitting four power-play goals in the first three games of their road trip, the Stars limited the Avalanche to four shots while killing off all four of their penalties.
* Seguin had a goal and an assist to extend his scoring streak to four games (two goals, three assists) ... Avalanche defenseman Fedor Tyutin was a late scratch because of a lower-body injury ... Varlamov won his previous seven home games against the Stars.
"It's nice, but it was really like a whole team shutout. We took some chances in the first [period], but then after that we just played really solid. We didn't try anything stupid when it wasn't there, and then when we had something we tried to make a play. For us it's a step in the right direction and something we hope we can build on." Lehtonen said.
"Feels good to contribute and do what I'm supposed to do." Seguin said.
"From start to finish we played the game the right way, we got the lead and continued to play the game the right way, which was important. We didn't give up any big plays, we got a big power-play goal. I liked five of our [previous] six periods and tonight I liked all three and we finally got rewarded. It was good to see us play that well away from the puck." Lindy Ruff said.
"Obviously we didn't want to end [the road trip] with a loss, so we came out prepared. I thought we played a structured game. This building has been tough on us in the past." Patrick Eaves.
* MacKinnon took a hard shot from the right circle at 16:29 of the second period that struck the bottom of Lehtonen's mask, which came off on impact. The puck dropped into Lehtonen's glove, and he put the mask back on as if it was a routine play.
* The Stars put on a forechecking clinic in the late stages of the third period, hemming the Avalanche in their end to prevent them from mounting a comeback.
* Seguin had a goal and an assist to extend his scoring streak to four games (two goals, three assists) ... Avalanche defenseman Fedor Tyutin was a late scratch because of a lower-body injury ... Varlamov won his previous seven home games against the Stars.
"It's nice, but it was really like a whole team shutout. We took some chances in the first [period], but then after that we just played really solid. We didn't try anything stupid when it wasn't there, and then when we had something we tried to make a play. For us it's a step in the right direction and something we hope we can build on." Lehtonen said.
"Feels good to contribute and do what I'm supposed to do." Seguin said.
"From start to finish we played the game the right way, we got the lead and continued to play the game the right way, which was important. We didn't give up any big plays, we got a big power-play goal. I liked five of our [previous] six periods and tonight I liked all three and we finally got rewarded. It was good to see us play that well away from the puck." Lindy Ruff said.
"Obviously we didn't want to end [the road trip] with a loss, so we came out prepared. I thought we played a structured game. This building has been tough on us in the past." Patrick Eaves.
Calgary Flames @ Stars 2-1 - Tuesday, December 06, 2016
Johnny Gaudreau had a goal and an assist to help the Calgary Flames to a 2-1 win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center. Gaudreau has four points in two games since returning from a fractured finger sustained Nov. 15 against the Minnesota Wild. He scored in the second period to tie the game 1-1 and then helped set up Sean Monahan's game-winning power-play goal in the third period. Johnson made 29 saves for Calgary (14-13-2), which won its fourth in a row. Dallas (10-11-6) thought it scored with 4:35 remaining in the third period, but a video review determined the goal was kicked into the net by Antoine Roussel. Monahan scored at 9:49 of the third period when Brett Ritchie was in the box for holding. Curtis McKenzie gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 13:15 of the first period when he scored unassisted on a rush. He forced a turnover near center ice and beat Johnson with a wrist shot for his third goal of the season, second in his past two games. Gaudreau tied the game at 1-1 on a 2-on-0 break with Alex Chiasson at 12:19 of the second period. Calgary appeared to take a 2-1 lead when Mark Giordano beat Lehtonen with a slap shot at 15:23 of the second period. The Stars challenged the play, and after review it was ruled Chiasson was offside.
* Monahan outworked the Stars defense when he tracked down his rebound for his eighth goal of the season.
"You can't give one of the most skilled players in the world three chances all alone like that," McKenzie said.
* Stars defenseman Julius Honka left the game with 7:41 remaining in the second period and didn't return after sustaining an upper-body injury. Ruff said Honka's injury didn't look serious but he wasn't able to play. … Gaudreau has six goals in eight career games against Dallas. He had a goal and an assist Sunday in an 8-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks.
"It wasn't good enough. We just played a disastrous second period, we should have been down three or four. Our puck management and what we did with the puck. At the end of the night there is karma and you get what you deserve." Lindy Ruff
* Lehtonen made two breakaway saves on Gaudreau in the second period, including a sprawling right-pad save during 4-on-4 play at 6:27.
* The rush that led to Gaudreau's goal started when Stars defenseman Jordie Benn made an errant pass entering the offensive zone and Flames defenseman T.J. Brodie poke-checked the loose puck to Monahan. He passed to Chiasson, who traded passes with Gaudreau.
* Stars defenseman Julius Honka left the game with 7:41 remaining in the second period and didn't return after sustaining an upper-body injury. Ruff said Honka's injury didn't look serious but he wasn't able to play. … Gaudreau has six goals in eight career games against Dallas. He had a goal and an assist Sunday in an 8-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks.
Nashville Predators @ Stars 2-5 - Thursday, December 08, 2016
The Dallas Stars put Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza together on a line and cashed in during a 5-2 win against the Nashville Predators at American Airlines Center. It was the first time they had been grouped on a line this season and it had instant results. Benn scored his 200th NHL goal and had a pair of assists, Spezza broke a 12-game goal drought and had two assists and Seguin scored on the power play and had an assist. The Stars scored twice in a span of 23 seconds in the first period. Benn gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 9:55 on a wrist shot. It was his second goal at 5-on-5 play this season and first since Nov. 10 against the Calgary Flames. Even though it was a milestone goal, Benn said it "felt like any other goal." On the next shift, Brett Ritchie scored his seventh goal of the season at 10:18. Viktor Arvidsson scored shorthanded for Nashville at 16:03 to make it 2-1. Stars defenseman John Klingberg broke his stick on a point shot to set up the 2-on-1 rush. Spezza scored for the first time since Nov. 3 when he gave Dallas a 3-1 lead at 3:27 of the second period. Spezza deked around Arvidsson and beat Pekka Rinne on the glove side. Dallas took a 4-1 lead at 5:47 when Antoine Roussel finished off a pass from Lauri Korpikoski. Rinne, who allowed four goals on 18 shots, was replaced by Marek Mazanec after Roussel's goal. Seguin scored on the power play with 44 seconds remaining in the second period to give Dallas a 5-1 lead. Calle Jarnkrok scored for Nashville at 15:09 of the third period to make it 5-2. Kari Lehtonen made 34 saves in his sixth win of the season.
* Lehtonen made a rebound save with his left pad on Predators forward Frederick Gaudreau with 3:11 remaining.
* Seguin's power-play goal gave the Stars a four-goal lead and came 16 seconds after they had an apparent goal by Radek Faksa overturned for goalie interference.
* Stars defenseman Jamie Oleksiak had four hits on his first shift and his teammates said that set the tone for the game. "What a shift, huh? He came back to the bench and I looked down and he was laughing," Seguin said. "That was a man shift. When he wants to do that he can do it, and you see a guy doing that and it lifts the whole team."
* The Stars improved to 27-8-1 all-time against the Predators at home. … Stars forward Cody Eakin was a healthy scratch for the first time this season. … Nashville went 0-for-3 on the power play, Dallas was 1-for-5.
"That was a lot more fun. Doing the right things and getting rewarded." Seguin said.
"I thought we've showed good chemistry in the past. We know when we're put together we have to be good. I thought it was good to have an impact as a line and we need to get things going the right way, and the three of us have to be good to do that." Spezza said.
"I thought all four lines played well. I thought there were other guys that deserved to score that didn't. I think that line [of Benn-Seguin-Spezza] did some good stuff, made some good plays and they found ways to take pucks hard to the net." Lindy Ruff
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