Stars Beat Predators
DALLAS — Thanks to two assists from center Jason Spezza, two goals from center Tyler Seguin and goaltender Antti Niemi stopping 33 of 34 shots, the Dallas Stars maintained their history of winning on New Year’s Eve.
Dallas defeated the Nashville Predators 5-1 Thursday at American Airlines Center.
The Stars are 11-4-2 on the final day of the calendar year since moving to Dallas in 1993.
“We had a full building. It was a great way to finish the year off,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said.
After Nashville (18-13-7) took a 1-0 lead midway through the second period when right winger Craig Smith scored off a backhand, Dallas (28-8-3) got unanswered goals from left winger Jamie Benn, center Mattias Janmark, left winger Patrick Eaves and two from Seguin.
Janmark had the eventual game-winner late in the second when he sent a Spezza pass into the top right corner of the Predators net, Janmark’s sixth goal in December.
“It’s been a good month. I don’t feel like I’ve played much better than in November or October,” Janmark said. “I got off to a good start in October. And November, I felt like I played good. I just couldn’t get the puck in the net, so it’s nice to get the goals in.”
Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne stopped 27 of 32 shots in the loss.
“(Rinne) is a great goalie. He’s world-class,” Spezza said. “I think we just
tried to shoot pucks at him. I think we tested our patience tonight and got rewarded for it.
Smith beat Niemi with a backhand at 11:22 of the second period. Left winger Filip Forsberg started the sequence with a pass from the left side that deflected off the stick of Stars defenseman Alex Goligoski and landed at the skates of center Mike Ribeiro.
Ribeiro then passed it to Smith in the slot, and after pulling Niemi out a bit, Smith maneuvered around Niemi and beat him with a backhand for his ninth of the season.
“I thought the first period was a decent period. It went back and forth, fairly even,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “The second period, I thought that they had the better chances and the more quality looks. We turned the puck over too much in the neutral zone. I didn’t like how we responded when it went to 3-1 and then 4-1. I don’t think we played well at all after that.”
Benn tied it 1:31 later with a wrist shot from the left circle. Benn gained possession after Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm was unable to corral the carom after Goligoski sent the puck off the boards. Benn, who is on a seven-game point streak, then rushed up the left side, and after squaring himself, beat Rinne for his NHL-leading 24th of the season to make it 1-1.
Dallas took its first lead with 2:32 remaining before the second intermission when Janmark scored his ninth of the season on a wrist shot that went top shelf to the far post. After Ribeiro couldn’t control the puck near the Nashville blue line, Spezza fed Janmark from the right circle.
Spezza also set up Eaves for his third goal of the season 3:56 into the third. Spezza intercepted an attempted clearance by Ekholm behind the Nashville net and fed Eaves in the slot, who one-timed Spezza’s pass into the left side of the Nashville net to make it 3-1.
Seguin scored his first of the night 8:03 into the third when he collected his own rebound off a wrist shot from the slot and tucked the puck inside the far post. Following a lengthy review, Seguin’s goal was deemed valid.
Seguin added a second with 3:04 remaining when he beat Rinne through his five-hole with a wrist shot from the right circle. Seguin now has 23 goals, tying him for second in the NHL.
“We’re a good team at bouncing back,” Seguin said. “We didn’t really play good at all in Columbus (on Tuesday). We had to get back to playing our game.”
