Lehtinen's late power play goal thwarts Panthers 4-3

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

It took five tries in the third period, but the Dallas Stars' power play finally delivered and it delivered a win.. Jere Lehtinen's power play goal with 16 seconds left in regulation lifted the Stars to the their fourth straight victory, a 4-3 defeat of the Florida Panthers at the American Airlines Center.

"I can't say enough about him," Stars coach Dave Tippett said after the game. "You are looking down the bench for someone to take control of the game and he doesn't tell you, he just does it and that's what makes him such a great player. He was in a class by himself tonight.

The win came after the Stars squandered a three-goal lead to the Panthers, who suffered their tenth straight loss on the road.

"I thought we came back hard and deserved a much better fate," Panthers coach Jacques Martin told the Associated Press. "When you play half the period short-handed, it's going to be very difficult to win the game."

The power play goal, the Stars' only one of the goal, marked the 17th straight game the Stars had scored at one one goal with the man advantage, tying the franchise record set during the 1986-87 season.

Lehtinen had two goals on the night for the Stars, who also got goals from defensemen Martin Skoula and Trevor Daley. 

The Stars were all over the Panthers in the first period, chasing Florida goalie Roberto Luongo from the net with three goals in the first 13:22 of the game.

The Stars struck first at 6:15 of the first when Antti Miettinen took a puck off the end boards and centered it to Lehtinen, who beat Luongo from the slot.

A little less than six minutes later the Stars made it a 2-0 game when Lehtinen got to a loose puck and fed it to Skoula, who scored from the left point at the 12:10 mark.

Just 1:12 later the Stars struck again when Daley skated down the left wing side and beat Luongo with a backhand shot to the blocker side. That was it for Luongo, who was replaced by Jamie McLennan. 

The second period belonged to the Panthers, who scored three goals in a 6:01 span to tie the game at
3-3.

After Panthers center Stephen Weiss won an offensive draw against Niko Kapanen, the puck went back to Mike Van Ryn, who passed the puck to Juraj Kolnik and the Florida forward beat a sprawling Marty Turco with a wrist shot. The time of the goal was 6:25.

Less than two minutes later the Panthers struck again. After Turco made a save on a Steve Montador shot,  the rebound went towards the boards where Jozef Stumpel fired a shot on net and Nathan Horton tipped it past Turco at the 8:09 mark.

The Panthers tied it with a five-on-three power play goal at 12:26 of the period. After Olli Jokinen put a one-timer on net, Joe Nieuwendyk scored off the scramble for the rebound.

The Stars had more power plays in the third period than they had shots. They outshot Florida 4-3 while having the advantage 5-1 in power plays during the final 20 minutes.

McLennan came up with a couple of nice stops on the Stars fourth power play to keep it tied, but the Stars got their fifth power play chance on a questionable call on Joel Kwiatkowski  with a 1:12 left in the game.

After Florida misfired a on a clearing chance, Modano got the puck behind the Panthers goalie and dished it off to Lehtinen, who beat McLennan from point blank range with just 16 seconds to go to give Dallas the 4-3 win.

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