Stars Lose To Blues
DALLAS — During their six-game winning streak, the St. Louis Blues have found ways to win.
On Saturday night against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center, the Blues overcame a late blown lead and prevailed 5-4 thanks to Alex Pietrangelo’s goal 2:11 into overtime.
“Each guy’s stepping up [during this streak] and I think we’re doing a great job of everyone just sticking with it and rolling with the punches,” said Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, who had two goals.
Pietrangelo scored his fifth goal of the season with a wrist shot from the slot that deflected in off the right arm of Stars goaltender Antti Niemi, who stopped 31 of 36 shots.
“I think we were all thinking we got to change,” Pietrangelo said. “[Robby Fabbri] went off and just the lane opened up. I saw low blocker, think it hit his pad and went in.”
Troy Brouwer and Vladimir Tarasenko, who also had an assist, also scored goals for the Blues (41-21-9). Paul Stastny had three assists, Fabbri and Jaden Schwartz had two assists each, and
Jake Allen stopped 34 of 38 shots.
Jason Spezza scored twice for Dallas (41-20-9), who also got goals from Cody Eakin and Jamie Benn and two assists each from Alex Goligoski, Kris Russell and Tyler Seguin.
Benn made it 3-3 with 1:12 remaining with Dallas on a 6-on-4 power play after redirecting a Seguin wrist shot for his 34th of the season. Dallas got a power play with 3:08 remaining after a hooking call on Fabbri and converted nearly two minutes later.
“I thought we dominated the first half of that game. Maybe we ran out a little bit of gas, but a couple of tough bounces. But I think we sold out, gave everything to get the point,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said.
Spezza added a second goal 6:02 into the third off a rebound.
St. Louis struck first when Brouwer collected his own rebound for his 14th of the season 8:47 into the game. Niemi denied Brouwer’s initial shot with a pad save, but Brouwer gathered the carom and popped the puck into the open net.
Dallas answered at 11:06 of the first when Eakin scored his 13th of the season on a backhand. Benn fed Eakin with a backhand pass from near center ice. Eakin then finished with a backhand that went top shelf and to Allen’s short side. Eakin punctuated the sequence by falling down during his goal celebration.
“We just kept coming back. Tonight there was no quit,” Ruff said.
Tarasenko gave the visitors a brief 2-1 lead with his 33rd of the season 1:37 into the second during a 4-on-4. Tarasenko’s initial shot struck Johnny Oduya’s hand, but Tarasenko got the carom and scored with a wrist shot off Niemi’s left shoulder.
Spezza pulled the game level 15 minutes later with his 27th goal of the season with Dallas on the power play. Allen stopped the initial wrist shot by Seguin from the left circle, but the puck got behind Allen and Spezza poked it in for his seventh goal in his past six games.
St. Louis pulled ahead again with 9:41 remaining in the second when Shattenkirk scored his 11th of the season on a wraparound during a 4-on-4. Niemi stopped Stastny’s initial shot, but Shattenkirk gained possession, skated around the back of the Dallas goal and tucked the puck inside the near post.
Shattenkirk added a second goal 46 seconds before the second intermission. Shattenkirk’s slap shot from the right point deflected off the knee of Stars rookie defenseman Stephen Johns before landing in the back of the net.
St. Louis finished the week of play at 4-0-0, including wins against Chicago, Anaheim and Dallas.
“This is a week if you’d said we were going to go 4-0, I think everybody wouldn’t have been shocked, so we’re really happy, happy for the guys,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said.
