Stars End Skid, Drop Coyotes 4-3

Tyler Seguin scored two goals, and Ryan Garbutt scored a late short-handed goal as the Dallas Stars defeated the Arizona Coyotes, 4-3, on Tuesday night at Gila River Arena in Glendale, AZ. The win ended a seven game losing streak for the Stars, as well as a four game pointless streak. Tied up at two going into the third, a combined three goals in the final five minutes led to goalie Kari Lehtonen fending off a flurry of shots in the final minute to preserve the win.

Recap

This one started with some mind games, as Stars captain Jamie Benn tried to inject some life into his teammates by dropping the gloves with Martin Hanzal six seconds into the match. Each player got off a punch before being sent off for five minutes. The fighting had the opposite effect, however, as an errant deflection off of Jordie Benn’s stick led to Connor Murphy’s goal from the point at the 1:42 mark. Brenden Dillon caught a fighting major himself after tussling with Kyle Chipchura. The Stars’ best chance in the period would be on a backhander from Benn after a long pass from Trevor Daley.

The second period saw some great chances from Jason Spezza along with some nifty stick work, but at the halfway mark the score was still 1-0. After Joe Vitale’s wrister made it 2-0, though, the Stars seemed to pick up their play a little bit. After trailing in the shot margin 24-12, they began directing more pucks toward the net, and finally broke through with 2:01 left in the period on Seguin’s rebound snap shot. 57 seconds later and on the power play, Seguin would tie it up with a slap shot from about the same spot.

Erik Cole gave the Stars their first lead of the game with 4:41 left in regulation, but Mikkel Boedker would serve up the equalizer 58 seconds later by punching in Antoine Vermette’s deflection. These late game collapses have become all too common with Dallas this season, and it seemed like just another chapter in the same sad story as Arizona began to punish Lehtonen with shots and forcing him to make a couple stunning saves just to keep it knotted up. Garbutt found the puck deep in his zone after a long power play volley by the Coyotes, but after clearing the puck he slipped a defender and found himself in the neutral zone with just another Coyote to beat. He crossed the left circle and slipped a beauty past Mike Smith while falling to his knees, and the Stars took a 4-3 lead. With 1:16 left in regulation, and all but ten seconds of it a 6-4 power play for Arizona, Lehtonen put the finishing touches on a splendid evening by stopping the Coyotes last desperate chances.

Thoughts and Observations

This one had all the makings of a turnaround game for Dallas. From the feisty comeback to the refusal to lose at the end, they found a way to win the type of game that it feels like they have already lost five times this season. Those own-zone turnovers are still a problem, however.

Good to see Mr. Garbutt on the score sheet again. He’s becoming one of the game’s more dangerous breakaway men, and this one was a classic. It’s not very often you see somebody go the length of the ice on the penalty kill, let alone in the final two minutes of a tie game.

John Klingberg had a solid pro debut, as he helped generate a couple of chances and finished the evening at plus-one.

Tyler Seguin is now tied with Rick Nash for the league lead in goals scored with 12.

The Stars head out to the Pacific coast tomorrow for a date with the Los Angeles Kings, winners of November 4th’s game in Dallas, on Thursday. Check back to Blackout Dallas for more news and updates!