Stars Beat Capitals
DALLAS — The Dallas Stars nearly blew a four-goal lead after two periods, but thanks to two goals from center Tyler Seguin and goaltender Kari Lehtonen stopping 20 of 23 shots, Dallas held on for a 4-3 victory against the Washington Capitals at American Airlines Center on Saturday, snapping the Capitals’ five-game winning streak.
“I thought the whole game was positive. I thought we played a heck of a game. I thought our compete (level), our energy (was good),” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. I thought the way we skated (was all great),” “But even after they scored, I liked the shifts we went with. We had a couple opportunities to get the fifth and didn’t quite get it, but I really liked the way our team played,”
Besides Seguin, fellow center Mattias Janmark and left winger Jamie Benn scored for Dallas (36-15-5), which won its third straight game and beat the Capitals for a ninth consecutive time.
“I thought we played pretty well,” Benn said. “I think we outskated them. Just tried to drive the tempo up. They got a couple good breaks there in the third, a couple good shots, but we found a way to win.
Stars defenseman Patrik Nemeth had two assists.
Seguin had to leave the ice with a cut on his left arm with 2:51 remaining after Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom caught him with an inadvertent skate after a faceoff in the right circle.
Ruff couldn’t offer an update on Seguin’s
status after the game.
“Yeah, he got a skate blade. He’s getting sewn up,” Ruff said.
With about six minutes remaining, Dallas lost center Cody Eakin to an undisclosed injury.
Left winger and captain Alex Ovechkin, right winger Justin Williams and left winger Andre Burakovsky scored for Washington (40-10-4), who scored three unanswered goals in the third period to make things interesting.
“I’ll take our first (period),” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. “We knew they’d be amped up, a lot of buildup for this game. Second period, we self-destructed, too many turnovers, light on the puck, lost battles. We turned the puck over and it just sort of kept going for the whole period.
“We had some push in the third and played the right way. We got it within a puck, but we lost the game totally in the second period. It was all on us.”
Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby stopped 21 of 25 shots before being replaced by backup Philipp Grubauer to begin the third period.
Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov had two assists.
Ovechkin scored his league-leading 35th goal to break the shutout 4:03 into the third period when he tucked a one-timer slap shot inside the far post with the Capitals on the power play.
Williams made it 4-2 when he scored his 18th of the season with a wrist shot that beat Lehtonen top shelf to the far post. Williams was inexplicably left open at the red line, received a pass from defenseman Nate Schmidt and skated in uncontested to make it a two-goal game.
“It’s tough getting the puck when you get outcompeted. We got outcompeted in every facet of the game first 40 minutes. End result was 4-0, that’s what it was,” Williams said.
Burakovsky made it 4-3 with his 11th goal of the season with 6:06 remaining, beating Lehtonen far post from the slot.
Grubauer, who stopped all 10 shots he faced in relief of Holtby, headed to the bench with 1:45 remaining but Washington couldn’t find a fourth goal despite the extra attacker.
“I always come in when we’re behind,” Graubauer said. “It’s not the ideal situation,” Grubauer said. “Today maybe couple too many turnovers and the wrong decisions. It was a chain of mistakes and it happens. It shouldn’t happen.”
