NHL - Stars Round Up - January 12-17, 2016

Detroit Red Wings @ Stars 2-5 - Thursday, January 12, 2017
Antti Niemi made 31 saves, and the Dallas Stars scored three times in the second period to defeat the Detroit Red Wings 5-2 at American Airlines Center.
Brett Ritchie, John Klingberg and Stephen Johns scored after Detroit took a 2-1 lead. Dallas tied the game 2-2 when Ritchie scored his ninth goal of the season on a deflection at 3:31. Radek Faksa took the shot after a turnover by Tomas Tatar behind the Red Wings net. Klingberg gave Dallas a 3-2 lead at 15:53 when he finished off a rebound after Devin Shore drove hard to the net. Johns, making his return after sitting the past three games as a healthy scratch, gave Dallas a 4-2 lead at 16:42 when his shot deflected off Red Wings defenseman Jonathan Ericsson and past goalie Petr Mrazek. Niemi made 16 saves in the third period when Dallas was holding on to a two goal lead. Patrick Eaves scored into an empty net with 1:06 remaining. Lauri Korpikoski scored on the Stars' first shot of the game when he deflected Jordie Benn's point shot past Mrazek for his sixth goal of the season at 3:39 of the first period. Detroit scored its third road power-play goal of the season, first since Oct. 19, to tie the game 1-1 at 14:09. With a 5-on-3 advantage, Gustav Nyquist scored his fifth goal of the season. Henrik Zetterberg gave Detroit a 2-1 lead 93 seconds later after a turnover by Esa Lindell behind the Stars net. Anthony Mantha forced the mistake, and Nyquist made an easy pass to Zetterberg in the slot for his eighth goal of the season. Mrazek made 16 saves.

* Klingberg got to a rebound in the second period after Mrazek made a difficult first save.

* Niemi stopped Andreas Athanasiou with his left pad at 14:19 of the third period. After the save, Athanasiou slammed his stick against the boards.

"I was just trying to reach over and take anything away. I think I might have got it with a piece of the glove," Niemi said.

* Ritchie's game-tying goal came on a hard-working shift when he won possession behind the net before screening Mrazek.

"That was a pretty good long-grinding shift," Ritchie said. "I think that everybody was jumping to pucks. I was just trying to get to the front of the net. I knew [Faksa] was going to shoot it. It was sort of a quick reaction, sort of a lucky tip. It was good to get a stick on it."

* After committing four minor penalties in the first period, the Stars committed one penalty the rest of the game and killed a Red Wings power play with 5:38 remaining.

* The Stars put defenseman Jamie Oleksiak on injured reserve after he injured his hand against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday. Ruff said Oleksiak is out "at least a couple weeks."

"I thought, OK, there's more there. Obviously we know that, but I don't think [Benn's] 100 percent either. He might tell us he's close to 100, but I don't think he is." Lindy Ruff

Wild @ Stars 5-4 - Saturday, January 14, 2017
Jason Zucker scored with 6:45 remaining in the third period to give the Minnesota Wild a 5-4 win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.
Minnesota led 4-0 in the first period. Dallas tied it 4-4 on a power-play goal by John Klingberg with 8:47 left. Mikael Granlund stole the puck from Jordie Benn and put a shot that deflected off Zucker and into the net. There was a brief review, but it was ruled the puck crossed the line before the net came off the moorings. Minnesota (27-9-5) took a 3-0 lead in the first 4:00 and went up 4-0 at 12:45. Antoine Roussel, Jiri Hudler and Seguin scored for Dallas (18-18-8).

Mikko Koivu made it 1-0 at 1:19 of the first period when his shot was blocked by Stephen Johns but was inadvertently put into the net by Stars defenseman Johnny Oduya. Eric Staal pushed the lead to 2-0 at 3:00 on a 2-on-1. He beat Antti Niemi with a wrist shot that went through the five-hole. Matt Dumba scored at 4:00 on a wrist shot. Niemi was pulled with zero saves on three shots.
Minnesota went ahead 4-0 aganst Kari Lehtonen when Chris Stewart finished off a cross-crease pass from Jordan Schroeder. Roussel scored with seven seconds left in the first period on a rush to make it 4-1. Hudler scored his second goal of the season at 2:20 of the second period, and Seguin made it 4-3 when he scored on a rebound at 6:06 of the second. Klingberg tied the game when his point shot deflected off Wild defenseman Ryan Suter and past goalie Darcy Kuemper.

* Zucker's goal helped the Wild move into first place in the Central Division and the Western Conference. Minnesota is tied with the Chicago Blackhawks at 59 points with four games in hand.

* Kuemper stopped Patrick Eaves with 5:40 remaining and Minnesota held on to the lead after Zucker's goal.

"The guys put us in the position to win. At that point you are just worried about making the saves you need to make," Kuemper said.
* Stewart's goal came on a sharp pass from Schroeder.
* The Stars recalled defenseman Patrik Nemeth from his conditioning stint Saturday but he was scratched. Nemeth played four games with Texas of the American Hockey League and was recalled after Jamie Oleksiak injured his hand.

Stars Quotes

"Obviously four goals in the first period is not acceptable. It's kind of tough. Obviously we showed a lot of heart … but it's tough and we've got to learn from this. This is a tough league coming from behind." Klingberg said.
"If you look at the last two first periods, our focus hasn't been good enough. We fell asleep on the faceoff. We gave up a 2-on-1 on a giveaway in the neutral zone. We dove in the neutral zone and gave Staal his 2-on-1. Once we got through the first 15 minutes we found our game again. But it's tough when you get down the way we got down." Lindy Ruff

Wild Quotes

"Yeah, that shows the resiliency we have as a group. Obviously, we don't want to let in four goals at any point, but we still feel that we have the confidence to win those games. I think we showed that tonight."
"Yeah, always [that adds some spice to the game]. That's where we want to be. We want to be at the top, want to make teams chase us. We're going to push the pace against all these teams, make sure that we're playing our game and they've got to keep up with us. That's the way we want to play. Should be exciting." Zucker said.

"We got a little turnover there and I got the puck and I just tried to put it to the net. It hit their goalie and hit [Zucker] and then it went in. So we'll take it." Granlund said.

Stars @ Buffalo Sabres 1-4 - Monday, January 16, 2017
Tyler Ennis scored 19 seconds into his return to the lineup and Jack Eichel scored two goals to help the Buffalo Sabres to a 4-1 win against the Dallas Stars at KeyBank Center. Ennis missed the past 30 games after groin surgery on Nov. 10 and gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead. He skated up the right wing and took a shot from the faceoff circle that beat Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen over his right shoulder for his second goal of the season. Eichel gave the Sabres a 3-1 lead 7:07 into the second period when he scored on a rebound of a shot in front by Sam Reinhart that beat Lehtonen. Reinhart has three goals and 10 assists in his past 13 games. Eichel added an empty-net goal with 10 seconds left in the third for his 10th goal. He also had an NHL career-high 10 shots on goal. The Sabres (17-17-9) won for the first time in three games. The Stars (18-19-8) have lost two straight and six of their past eight games (2-5-1). Jake McCabe's power-play goal made it 2-0 with 7:26 left in the first period. McCabe picked up a turnover by Stars forward Jamie Benn in the high slot and beat Lehtonen high to the right corner for his first goal of the season. Stars forward Radek Faksa cut the lead to 2-1 with 4:46 left in the first. Forward Jiri Hudler's shot went off the post and the puck bounced off Faksa and past Sabres goalie Robin Lehner for his sixth goal of the season. The Stars appeared to tie it 1:38 into the second when a shot by defenseman Stephen Johns deflected past Lehner but Sabres coach Dan Bylsma challenged the play was offside. After review, it was found Stars forward Patrick Eaves was in the zone ahead of the play and nullified the goal.

* Ennis' goal was a perfectly placed shot over Lehtonen's blocker.

* Lehner made 31 saves and helped keep the Stars from getting back into it with a clean save against defenseman Esa Lindell with 7:51 left in the third.

* Ennis also nearly scored on a lacrosse-style goal from behind the net with the puck on the blade of his stick with just over 3:00 left to go in the first period, but the puck rolled off at the last second.

* Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen had a game-high 26:33 of ice time and five blocked shots. He also helped set up Eichel's first goal.

* The Sabres are 8-3-2 against the Western Conference this season. … Reinhart matched his assist total from last season (19) with his assist on Eichel's goal.
"[Benn's] struggled for a period of time. Obviously his struggles out there were easy to see. He's fighting through his energy, but he's in the lineup so you've just got to assume he's ready to go and I do. I see the frustration. It's hard. I actually had to bump him down and see if we could free the other guys up a little bit. It's been a tough year for him." Lindy Ruff 

Stars @ NY Rangers 7-6 - Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Henrik Lundqvist allowed seven goals, and a New York Rangers comeback fell short in a 7-6 loss to the Dallas Stars at Madison Square Garden. Lundqvist was replaced by rookie Magnus Hellberg to start the third period after allowing seven goals on 27 shots. Lundqvist has allowed 12 goals on 49 shots in his past four periods and 20 goals on 113 shots in his past four games. Dallas led 7-3 in the second period, enough to withstand New York's third-period push. Derek Stepan, Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad scored in the first 7:26, but the Rangers couldn't tie the game against Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen, who replaced Antti Niemi. The Rangers (28-16-1) have lost three in a row. Dallas (19-19-8) ended a two-game losing streak. Patrick Sharp scored twice, and Jamie Benn and Patrick Eaves each scored a goal and had two assists. Antoine Roussel, Adam Cracknell and Cody Eakin scored, and Radek Faksa and Lauri Korpikoski each had two assists. Most of Dallas' goals came from breakdowns in front of Lundqvist with the Rangers either blowing a read or missing an assignment altogether. They are a reason for his .841 save percentage in six games this month (26 goals on 164 shots). Stepan and Zibanejad, who was playing his first game since Nov. 20, when he broke his left fibula, each scored twice. Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich also scored, Buchnevich had two assists, and Mats Zuccarello had three assists. Lehtonen made 12 saves in relief of Niemi, who allowed six goals on 28 shots and was pulled with 12:34 remaining, after Zibanejad scored to make it 7-6. Lehtonen made three saves in the final five seconds. Eaves, Sharp and Benn scored 5:20 apart in the first period to build a 3-1 lead at 17:54 after Stepan made it 1-0 27 seconds into the game. Roussel made it 4-1 at 4:32 of the second. The Rangers got goals from Zibanejad and Buchnevich 2:10 apart to make it 4-3 at 12:06, but Sharp scored on a wraparound 48 seconds later. Cracknell and Eakin followed in the next 4:46 to extend the lead to 7-3.

* Cracknell kept the puck on a 2-on-1 and beat Lundqvist with a short side wrist shot from 25 feet out to give the Stars a 6-3 lead at 15:53 of the second period.

* Lehtonen's three-save sequence with the play in front of him in the final five seconds preserved the win. He stopped a one-timer from Brandon Pirri and followed with saves on Zuccarello and Zibanejad off rebounds.

* Nothing better illustrates Lundqvist's struggles more than Sharp's wraparound goal. The Rangers lost races to the puck, they didn't pick up Sharp behind the net, Lundqvist covered the wrong post, and defenseman Adam Clendening was facing the wrong direction.

* Faksa had an assist on each of Sharp's goals and won a game-high 16 faceoffs.

* The Stars scored a season high; they scored six goals three times. … Jason Spezza was the only Stars forward who didn't have a point. … The Rangers top line of Stepan, Kreider and Zuccarello combined for eight points, giving it 38 points in the past 10 games.

"It's frustrating that we need to score seven goals to win the game, but right now we'll take a win whatever way we can." Patrick Sharp

"When I look at it, I still felt we deserved to win tonight. When you look at the schedule and the number of games, there is some goofy stuff going on, and we'll take the two points." Lindy Ruff said.