Stars Beat Jets
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Very few actually saw a pivotal third-period goal by Dallas center Colton Sceviour, but there was no way to miss a pair of late goals by left winger Jamie Benn that solidified a huge road victory for the Stars on Tuesday night.
Benn scored his 31st and 32nd goals of the season as the Stars registered a 5-3 win over the struggling Winnipeg Jets at the MTS Centre.
The team captain ripped a power play tally with 5:52 left in the third period to give his club a 4-2 lead and then his empty netter with 15 seconds left in the game sealed it for Dallas (38-17-6), now atop the Central Division standings and a point up on the Chicago Blackhawks (38-19-5).
Centre Mark Scheifele had scored his 14th with 2:06 left in regulation and goalie Ondrej Pavelec on the bench for an extra attacker to pull the Jets (25-30-4) to within one.
Benn is third in the NHL in goals scoring, pulling ahead of linemate and center, Tyler Seguin (31) but trailing Washington Capitals left winger Alex Ovechkin (39) and Chicago right winger Patrick Kane (35).
But the big blow, he said, came off the stick of Sceviour, whose quick shot at
12:29 of the third period was reviewed and called a goal to snap a 2-2 tie. The shot appeared to beat goalie Ondrej Pavelec, strike the camera affixed to the mesh roof of the net and ricochet out.
“We got a huge goal from the (Vern) Fiddler, (Radek) Faksma, Sceviour line,” Benn said. “Our assistant coach, Curt Fraser, knew right away that it was a goal, so they blew the horn not long after that.
“I haven’t seen a play like that in, I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a play like that,” he said. “But we’ll take it. We got two points and now we’re ready to get home and face these guys again.”
Dallas has won all four meetings with Winnipeg this season and can sweep the season series Thursday.
Sceviour was, perhaps, the most shocked person in the building when the arena horn sounded just as he and his linemates had the Jets hemmed in their own end.
“It came out so fast that I wasn’t sure. There was no sound off the cross bar,” he said. “I thought the horn went off by accident. It was like a minor hockey thing where it goes off.
“I was still on the ice. All of us were kind of looking at each other. We had good possession, kind of trying to figure out what happened. And we came to the bench and they told us it went in.”
Stars center Jason Spezza netted his 19th goal of the season, a power play marker, to open the scoring in the first period. Right winger Valeri Nichushkin added his sixth in the second period.
Dallas blueliner John Klingberg had three assists.
Winnipeg left winger and captain Andrew Ladd had tied the game 2-2 late in the second period with his 17th goal of the season in what could be his final game at the MTS Centre.
Ladd finished off a two-on-one, shorthanded rush with blueliner Dustin Byfuglien at 16:14 of the middle frame. It was the club’s 10th shorthanded marker of the season, tying them with the Ottawa Senators for the league lead.
Ladd, an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, is the target of much speculation, with at least a half a dozen teams rumored to be interested in the two-time Stanley Cup champion’s services. The NHL trade deadline is Monday and the Jets, basically out of the playoff race, aren’t at home again until Tuesday.
He received a standing ovation from the crowd after the goal and was named the game’s second star.
“I guess it’s different for me because nothing is set in stone and you don’t know what’s going on,” Ladd said. “You’re still out there trying to play a hockey game but, obviously, appreciate the ovation after the goal.
“Fans have always been great. Ever since me and my family got here in Winnipeg, we’ve loved the people in the city and they’ve treated us great.”
Jets center Alex Burmistrov registered his sixth goal of the season early in the second period.
Dallas netminder Antti Niemi made 22 saves for the victory.
Pavelec stopped 22 shots in his fourth start after returning from a knee injury sustained on Nov. 21 that kept him out of the lineup for 33 games.
Special teams were crucial as the Stars went two-for-five on the power play, while the Jets were 0-for-4, including a dismal two-man advantage for 45 seconds early in the third period that generated no shots with the score tied 2-2.
“That was probably the biggest part of the game, the kill of the 5-on-3. I thought our (penalty) killers did a pretty good job,” said Dallas head coach Lindy Ruff. “We were playing a pretty tight game, but give them credit. They’ve got some speed. They created chances on their own. We traded some good chances and good chances missed by both teams.”
