Stars Win In Chicago
{fshare id=5954}
CHICAGO — The fourth time was, well, about time for the Dallas Stars.
After having lost the first three of five scheduled regular season meetings with the Chicago Blackhawks, the Stars were not about to be denied in their fourth matchup of the 2014-15 season Sunday at the United Center.
Center Cody Eakin led the Stars’ with two goals and an assist, left winger Jamie Benn had three assists and goalie Kari Lehtonen stopped 38 shots as the Stars cruised to a 6-3 win over the Blackhawks.
Eakin, who came into the game with seven goals, scored the Stars’ second goal of the night in the first period, as well as the game-winner in the third period.
Dallas (21-17-7) has now won its last two games and three of its last four. It also improved to 10-8-2 on the road.
Despite two goals from left winger Brandon Saad, Chicago (28-15-2) continued its recent struggles, suffering its fifth loss in the last eight games.
Chicago goalie Corey Crawford was able to stop just 28 of Dallas’ 34 shots. Crawford suffered his
second straight defeat and fourth in his last seven outings, dropping his personal season mark to 17-10-2.
“We didn’t commit ourselves to playing the right type of game,” Chicago center and team captain Jonathan Toews said. “We played hard and we played well at times, where we sustained the pressure and controlled the play, but then we had lapses where we were giving up 2-on-1s.
“It was evident throughout our entire game, whether it was our power play or our penalty kill or 5-on-5. We weren’t good enough in that area tonight.”
Dallas took over with three third-period goals after entering the period tied at 3. That’s where Dallas put things together, while Chicago fell apart.
The tie lasted less than three minutes as Eakin scored his second goal of the night and ninth of the season on the power play at 2:58.
“We know going into the game, it’s a high-chance team,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “We’re in the right spot in the third period, tied hockey game at home. They played last night. It was exactly what happened last game. They get the big goal on their power play, very timely.”
Dallas coach Lindy Ruff couldn’t agree more with Quenneville’s assessment.
“(That was a) big power-play goal,” Ruff said. “At that time of the game, it’s a big power play, it’s a big goal for your team. Gives us a little bit of momentum.
“When you saw that, you saw the odd-numbered rushes and you saw even better opportunities on our part.”
Indeed, Dallas scored twice more to turn a tight game into a rout.
Left winger Eric Cole’s made it 5-3 with a wrist shot at 10:59 of the final period for his 12th goal of the season.
Stars center Shawn Horcoff finished things off with an empty-netter with a minute remaining.
“We found a way to win it,” Benn said. “We’ve been in this situation before, coming in here after two periods and being tied. We just wanted to get the job done tonight. That was all that was on our minds and we found a way to win.”
The Stars came out fast, scoring two goals in the first 11 minutes of the game.
Center Tyler Seguin tallied his team-leading 27th goal at 6:33 of the first period to make it 1-0 for Dallas.
Even though they were playing short-handed with left winger Ryan Garbutt in the penalty box for hooking, the Stars went up 2-0 at 10:49 when Eakin tallied his eighth goal of the season.
Chicago got back on track at 12:22 of the first period when right winger Patrick Kane tipped in a rebound past Lehtonen to cut Dallas’ lead to 2-1. The goal was Kane’s team-leading 21st.
Saad tied things up with his 14th goal of the season on the power play at 17:00 of the first period.
Dallas went back ahead 3-2 on center Vernon Fiddler’s fifth goal of the season at 19:11 of the first period.
Saad tallied his second goal of the evening on a wrist shot past Lehtonen at 7:13 of the second period, tying the game at 3.
Saad now has nine goals and two assists in Chicago’s last 12 games.
