Stars Beat Flames
By Jeff MacKinnon, The Sports Xchange
CALGARY, Alberta — Not surprisingly, Jamie Benn’s season-opening slump has coincided with early struggles for the Dallas Stars.
But on Thursday, the team’s captain showed signs of life and doubled his season goal total by scoring twice to lead Dallas past the Calgary Flames 4-2.
Lauri Korpikoski and Antoine Roussel, into an empty net, also scored for the Stars (5-6-3), who have just two wins in their past eight games.
“It seems I go through a streak like that every year,” Benn said. “There are things you have to work through and learn from and it feels good to get two (goals) but it feels a lot better that we won.”
Johnny Gaudreau scored twice for the Flames (5-9-1), who have lost three in a row and five of their past six.
Benn snapped a 2-2 tie when he converted off a feed from Tyler Seguin on the power play at 7:20 of the third period.
The NHL scoring champion two years ago, Benn started slow with two goals through 13 games coming in to Thursday after potting 41 in 2015-16 and 35 and 34, respectively, the seasons before that.
Seguin told reporters after the morning skate that he was going to try and set up Benn to help get him out of his slide and he did.
“(Jamie) was really buzzing out there tonight,” said Seguin, who leads the Stars with 15 points. “It is what we needed. He’s our captain and we need him to lead the way, especially after an embarrassing loss the other night.”
The Stars are trying to gain some traction after starting a slide on Oct. 27 when they were beaten 4-1 by the Winnipeg Jets in Winnipeg. They were back in Winnipeg on Tuesday and were thumped again 8-2, sending them to Calgary in poor spirits.
“This win is a good confidence for this group. This wasn’t easy. We grinded one out here tonight. We got to learn as a group here that every night you’ve got to bring it,” Benn said.
Gaudreau likewise was struggling offensively and faced criticism for the first time in his three seasons in Calgary. He scored only twice in the first 14 games after signing a six-year, $40.5 million contract the day before the regular season began after scoring 30 to lead the Flames in 2015-16.
“It’s nice to find the net but that’s not what the game is about. It’s about winning as a team. It’s a tough loss,” Gaudreau said.
The Flames changed coaches prior to this season after a woeful 2015-16, but new man Glen Gulutzan has not found a way to light a fire. Special teams has not performed well and on Thursday night the power play was 0-for-4. They had a late chance in the third period after Dallas was caught with too many men on the ice but nothing came of it.
“We’re finding ways to lose,” Gulutzan said. “There are certain things that we are doing well but we need somebody to step up and stop the bleeding. That’s really what we need.”
The Stars grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period. Korpikoski snapped a shot over Brian Elliott’s glove at 12:31 and Benn followed at 15:35 when he tucked a backhander inside the post to Elliott’s stick side while on the move in the high slot.
The Flames got on the board at 1:33 of the second when Brett Kulak’s shot got behind Kari Lehtonen and stopped near the post, where Gaudreau found it and pushed it across the goal line. Gaudreau then tipped in Kulak’s slapper at 3:31
