The Dallas Stars broke a two-game losing streak by downing the Winnipeg Jets by a 6-4 count in a wide-open and sometimes testy Saturday matinee in Winnipeg. The win moved Dallas two points ahead of Winnipeg in the Central Division standings, with three games in hand.
Dallas had been in 2-for-30 drought on the power play heading into this game but notched a pair of tallies on the man advantage to swing momentum in a seesaw game that saw Winnipeg fire 38 shots on Kari Lehtonen and Dallas generate 32 on Ondrej Pavelec (five goals against on 24 shots) and Al Montoya (one goal on eight shots).
The Stars top line, along with veteran defenseman Sergei Gonchar (four assists), did most of the damage. Tyler Seguin racked up a two-goal, two-assist game. Jamie Benn snapped an 11-game goalless drought with a rebound goal at even strength and a powerplay catch-and-fire snap shot (his first man advantage tally of the season). Rookie forward Valeri Nichushkin scored a beauty off a solo transitional rush.
Early in the third period, Colton Sceviour rounded out the scoring. He scored a nice goal off the line rush to notch his first NHL goal.
On the Winnipeg side, Matt Halischuk, Blake Wheeler (PPG and even strength) and Olli Jokinen scored goals. The Stars had a rough defensive game for the most part, and rookie defenseman Jamie Oleksiak was victimized multiple times.
The Jets fought back from three separate one-goal deficits before a boarding major on Anthony Peluso -- who drilled Alex Goligoski from behind with 4:22 left in the second period -- proved extremely costly. Benn converted a Seguin feed to put Dallas ahead, 4-3, and then Seguin fired home a laser beam of a slap shot from high in the offensive zone to forge a two-goal advantage. Dallas led the rest of the way.
Lehtonen, who has not had his A game of late, was not at the peak of his form in this match. While he often had little help from the defense in front of him on most of the goals Winnipeg scored, he was his own enemy on a couple of fat rebounds in the slot (with unguarded Jets attackers in front) and also committed too early and took himself out of position on one of the Wheeler goals.
However, this was one of those bend-but-don't-break games for the Dallas netminder. When the team desperately needed a few momentum saves, Lehtonen made them. He battled all game long, and came up with quite a few dandy saves among the 34 he made.
Next up for the Stars is a home-and-home set with the Avalanche. The front end will be played in Denver on Monday with the return game at the American Airlines Center on Tuesday evening.
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