Stars Beat Flames

By Stephen Hunt, The Sports Xchange

DALLAS — Tyler Seguin had gone just over two years since his last hat trick. However, on Friday night against the Calgary Flames, Seguin lit the lamp three times and Ben Bishop stopped 34 shots for the Dallas Stars in a 6-4 victory at American Airlines Center.
Seguin scored once in the second period and twice in the third. His second goal, the eventual game-winner with 5:57 remaining, was the 200th of his career. Seguin added an empty-netter with 1:00 remaining to clinch his eighth career hat trick and first since Nov. 3, 2015.
“That felt like a playoff game from the first shift,” Seguin said. “They’re a good team. We know how we’ve been against the West, so we were ready to come out and compete. I liked our game from the goalie out.”
Antoine Roussel, Alexander Radulov, who added an assist, and Gemel Smith also scored for Dallas (12-10-1, 25 points), which also got two assists from John Klingberg. The Stars are now 9-2-0 at home.
Dallas overcome three separate deficits to eventually pull away in the game’s final 10 minutes.
“I just think coming back and winning a hockey game really builds confidence,” Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. “That’s the most important part. The score’s not relevant for us.”
Sean Monahan had two goals and an assist, and Johnny Gaudreau had a goal and two assists for the Flames (12-9-1), who also got a goal from Michael Ferland.
“Yeah, I thought we played a pretty good game right until the 10-minute mark of the third,” Flames coach Glen Gulutzan said. “Then, we had a huge penalty kill. Thought the guys did an excellent job in a 5-on-3, and all of a sudden, we self-inflicted ourselves. It’s been going on last couple games, tonight it caught you.”
Dallas took a 1-0 lead to the first intermission when Roussel scored with 1:38 remaining in the opening period, sending a wrist shot over the right shoulder of Mike Smith, who stopped 35 shots.
Calgary tied it early in the second when Ferland beat Bishop far post on a one-timed slap shot from outside the top of the left circle.
The Flames took their first lead when Gaudreau scored 2:53 into the second after dispossessing Dan Hamhuis inside the Dallas zone and beating Bishop far post from the right circle.
Dallas answered with an equalizer at 4:20 of the second from Seguin, who took Mattias Janmark’s pass at the near post and knocked the puck out of the air.
With 12:28 remaining in the second, Dallas defenseman Stephen Johns caught a skate blade in the ice, fell and banged his head into the boards near the Stars bench. Johns left with an upper-body injury and did not return.
“We’re not sure exactly what it is. We’re not sure where it is or what it is,” Hitchcock said of Johns’ injury. “He hit his back. He hit a little bit of his head. He hit the middle of the back, and then he hit the shoulder too. We’ll get a better evaluation in the morning, but it’s sore in a number of areas.”
Calgary regained the lead with 2:29 remaining when Monahan scored a power-play goal off a rebound. Bishop denied Gaudreau’s initial shot, but Monahan scored from the slot.
Dallas tied it again at 3-3 with 1:30 remaining in the second when Radulov scored off a rebound.
“Yeah, I think we kept getting leads and then just blowing them,” Flames defenseman Dougie Hamilton said. “Every time we got a goal, we’d give up a goal and that kind of killed it for us.”
Monahan gave the Flames a 4-3 lead with his second in the game off the rush 6:04 into the third period.
One minute later, Dallas had 1:20 of 5-on-3 hockey, but was unable to convert.
Smith tied it for the Stars with his second goal of the season with 7:48 remaining.
“(He’s) a guy you’re not really looking to score that big goal, but he always comes up and makes big plays,” Seguin said of Smith.
Seguin then gave Dallas back the lead with his second of the night.

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