Stars Pay Price For Victory
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DALLAS — The Dallas Stars weren’t celebrating after a 2-0 victory against the Florida Panthers on Friday night at American Airlines Center. That’s because their third straight win came at a heavy price, as Dallas lost three players to injury — right winger Ales Hemsky, center Tyler Seguin and right winger Patrick Eaves.
All three appear they will be out for some time.
“Eaves is on the way to the hospital to get X-rays,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “He took a pretty good shot to the head. He has had a previous injury there, so we’re fairly concerned. Tyler (Seguin) is going to be re-evaluated (Saturday). We’ll have probably a better idea (then), but it looks like he’s going to miss some time, too. Hemsky’s going to stay back too. He’s going to miss some time. It’s been a tough night on the injury front.”
Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen stopped 37 shots to earn his 31st career shutout, and Dallas got first-period goals from left winger and captain Jamie Benn and center Jason Spezza.
“We’re not really smiling or celebrating,” Lehtonen said.
Hemsky left with a lower-body injury early in the first period and would not return.
Seguin, the NHL’s second-leading scorer, had to be helped off
the ice after Florida defenseman Dmitry Kulikov upended him near the Panthers blue line with 6:55 remaining in regulation. Kulikov was assessed a major penalty for clipping and a game misconduct.
“It’s a dirty shot,” Ruff said. “We’ll let the league deal with it. I used to yell and scream about it, but it doesn’t do any good. It’s just a shot that didn’t need to happen.”
Stars center Vernon Fiddler also took exception with the play.
“I think it’s a gutless play for their D to do that,” Fiddler said. “(Seguin)’s released the puck, and (Kulikov) comes across and takes his knee out. There’s no room in the game, and it’s not a good play. It’s a gutless play on his part, and we’ll have to deal with that at a later time.”
Florida coach Gerard Gallant has no idea if Kulikov could be suspended.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen to be honest with you, who knows,” Gallant said.
Eaves also had to leave the ice with assistance 51 seconds later after being struck in the right side of the head by a wrist shot from Stars rookie defenseman John Klingberg with 6:04 remaining.
The Stars struck first when Benn scored a short-handed goal 9:27 into the game. Benn finished off the rush, tapping in a Fiddler pass for his 19th of the season. It was Dallas’ NHL-leading ninth short-handed goal of the season.
Fiddler gained possession near the Dallas blue line after Panthers rookie defenseman Aaron Ekblad couldn’t maintain possession. After the puck hit Fiddler’s skates, he was off to the races and hit Benn in stride for his seventh point in the last 10 games.
“We knew that they were really good on the penalty-kill. They cheat,” Panthers defenseman Erik Gudbranson said. “I think that they have the most short-handed goals in the league and we knew that coming in. Obviously that’s a tough pill to swallow early in the game like that; that’s not how we wanted to start.”
Dallas put Florida on the power play when Eaves earned a double minor for drawing blood to the face of Florida left winger Shawn Thornton 8:30 into the game.
The Stars added a second goal with 2:51 remaining in the opening period when Spezza scored his 11th of the season after a brilliant spin move shook Ekblad and completely fooled Florida backup goaltender Al Montoya.
The Panthers couldn’t clear the puck from the neutral zone and after Spezza gained possession near the Florida blue line, he shook Ekblad before finishing with a wrist shot from the slot to make it 2-0.
Montoya stopped 26 of 28 shots before leaving the ice with 1:30 remaining.
