It wasn't always easy but the Dallas Stars did a good job of recovering from Saturday night's humiliation by Chicago to squeak out a 4-3 win over the Calgary Flames last night at the American Airlines Center.
Loui Eriksson led with the way for Dallas with a pair of goals after Erik Cole and Eric Nystrom opened the scoring for the Stars. Dallas built a 3-0 lead in the first period, yielded a pair of power play goals (Jiri Hudler and Jay Bouwmeester) in the middle stanza, got an extra insurance goal from Eriksson and then held on for a one-goal win after Alex Tanguay got free to cut Calgary's deficit to 3-2 with 4:46 remaining in the game.
Kari Lehtonen was not particularly busy in the game. He saw only 19 shots, stopping 16. The goaltender, who has not been at his peak since returning from a groin pull, perhaps could have stopped Bouwmeester's backhander in the second period (a somewhat similar play to Shea Weber's goal last week) but the penalty killers allowed all sorts of time and space. He had no chance of stopping Hudler's deflection in front. Tanguay's goal was a classic goal-scorer's goal: He came at Lehtonen with a lot of speed, put on a nasty little shift and deposited the puck home on the backhand.
Joey MacDonald stopped 20 of 24 shots in a losing cause for Calgary. His biggest highlight was stopping Dallas' Antoine Roussel on a first-period penalty shot. With the loss last night, the Flames fell to 0-6-1 in their last seven road games.
By far, the Stars' best period of the three was the first period. They were up on their skates and won most of the battles, outshooting Calgary 12-5 in the process and going up 3-0 on the scoreboard.
Cole opened the scoring by putting the puck at the net and getting a fortunate bounce off the skate of Derek Smith. Shortly thereafter, Nystrom extended the lead with a wrist shot from the left slot.
In an effort to spark some emotion in his team, Jarome Iginla dropped the gloves with Dallas center Cody Eakin at the 16:32 mark of the first period. Instead, three shifts later, Eriksson took a feed from Ray Whitney and roofed it over MacDonald.
The Stars got into penalty trouble in the second period. Calgary took exception (with justification) to a questionable hit by Eakin on Matt Stajan and quickly turned it into a power play goal by Hudler. I'm not sure what Eakin was trying to do, but he ducked down and then threw his body upward at Stajan, who didn't have the puck.
Shortly thereafter, Jordie Benn was sent off for hooking Calgary's Lee Stempniak. Bouwmeester skated untouched into the slot and backhanded a shot that hit the post and went in the net.
Dallas nursed its 3-2 until the 12:06 mark of a fairly evenly played third period. Finally, Jamie Benn's made an errant pass attempt but the Stars eventually made their own good luck by Eriksson keeping his feet moving. The pass attempt went off the skate of Mark Giordano and directly to Eriksson, who showed quick hands to finish off the sudden scoring chance. The goal proved crucial when Tanguay sped past the Dallas defense and scored to bring the Flames back within a goal.
The Stars finished their four-game homestand with a 1-2-1 record. They will now head out on the road for back-to-back games in Colorado on Wednesday and Los Angeles on Thursday.
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