After Houston rallied from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game in the third period, Sceviour scored off a slap shot from the high slot to win the game for the Texas.

The Stars play next on Wednesday, when they host Peoria.

And the Stars need points to keep pace in the Western Conference playoff race. Eighth place Detroit won Friday night, pulling four points ahead of the Stars. Ninth place Calgary won as well, moving three points ahead of the Stars.

But the Stars weren't focused on what others were doing Friday. In practice they were focused on their own game, which has been nowhere close to where it needs to be coming out of the Olympic break in losses to Los Angeles and St. Louis by a combined 11-2 margin.

"We were focused on simply working," Stars coach Crawford said. "Sometimes you're never quite far off if you recognize that you've got to work harder. We recognize that's something we can improve on right now. I'm not saying there hasn't been good attention and good work, but we've been a lot off on our execution. When you get off on your execution, everything falls apart a little bit.

"So we tried to concentrate on two things: work and simplicity in our play. We're doing simple things. We're simply supporting the puck, we're simply skating hard, we're simply coming back. We're doing the basic things that when we're on, our team does a terrific job."

Lehtonen to start

Kari Lehtonen made his Dallas Stars debut in relief of Marty Turco on Thursday. He'll make his first start for the Stars in Pittsburgh on Saturday. 

“The good thing about last night was that he got to have about 35 minutes of quality start," said Stars coach Marc Crawford. "He got to see the subtleties of all the attention that the goalie has to have during a penalty kill. You can’t simulate that the way that game action does. The fatigue that sets in when you have the battle in the goal mouth for 30 or 40 seconds, that’s really hard, anaerobically for a goalie, so for him to get that intensity was certainly good, and I know he’s looking forward to his start.”

Lehtonen, who is coming off two offseason back surgeries, stopped 14 of 16 shots during his first NHL action since last April. Stars goaltending coach Mike Valley thinks Lehtonen can get up to speed quickly.

"Any time you get into an NHL game it's a different pace. I think the toughest thing for him is finding that game rhythm again," Valley said. "He's played quite a few NHL games and he's got that experience. I don't think it's going to take very long."

Crawford: Turco not being on bench addressed

After getting pulled in the second period of Thursday night's loss to St. Louis, Stars goalie Marty Turco did not stay on the bench with the team. Stars coach Marc Crawford said the issue was discussed Friday morning.

‘We addressed it this morning. Nobody likes to get pulled. I don’t think he was trying to do anything,” Crawford said. “It’s how you view things and how everybody views it, especially our young players or whether it’s just our team in general. As I said, we addressed it and moved forward from it. I don’t think for a minute he was trying to draw attention from the team. I think he was probably a little bit upset with his own performance and was trying to focus himself.”

Turco did remain at American Airlines Center during the rest of the game.

Practice lines

Stars coach Marc Crawford juggled his lines at Friday's practice. Here's a look at the combinations. One note, center Mike Modano had the day off.

Dallas Stars at Pittsburgh Penguins
Saturday March 6
12:00 pm
TV: FSN | Radio: KTCK 1310-AM About the Stars

 The Stars (28-23-12) lost their second straight game coming out of the Olympic break, falling 6-1 to St. Louis Thursday night at American Airlines. The Stars have been outscored 11-2 in the two losses.

"There's not a lot of good things happening for us right now. We're beating ourselves," said Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas. "The work ethic is not there, and we're not sticking with the program, and once we get down, we get down on ourselves."

Kari Lehtonen, who took over for Marty Turco in the second period and stopped 14 of 16 shots in his Stars debut, will start Saturday in Pittsburgh.

Injuries: F Brian Sutherby (shoulder) is out. About the Penguins The Penguins won their second straight game coming out of the break, beating the New York Rangers 5-4 in overtime at Madison Square Garden Thursday night. The Penguins overcame a 4-2 deficit to force overtime.

“We did some really good things. We deserved that one,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “We felt like it was only a matter of time before we were back into it."

The Penguins outshot the Rangers 55-16 in the game. Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was pulled after giving up four goals on 12 shots. Brent Johnson, who stopped all four shots he saw in relief, got the win. 

Injuries: RW Bill Guerin (back) is questionable. RW Eric Goddard (groin) is out.   Season Series

• This is the first and only meeting between the two teams this season.
• The Penguins won last season's meeting, 4-1 at Dallas.
• The Stars are 56-61-3 all-time against the Penguins.

• The Stars are 0-3-1 in their last four meetings against Pittsburgh.
• The Stars have been outscored 11-2 in their last two games.
• The Stars are 2-0-1 in their last three road games.
• The Penguins are 4-0-2 in their last six home games.
• Eight different Pittsburgh players have scored in the team's two games since the Olympic break.

Texas captain Landon Wilson, playing his first game January 2 due because of an abdominal injury, scored two goals, had four shots on goal and had a fighting major. Ray Sawada also scored for the Stars.

Matt Climie got the start in goal and stopped 26 of 29 shots. He was backed up by Brent Krahn, who was in uniform for the first time since late November. Krahn has been out due to sports hernia surgery.

Texas fell behind 2-0 in the first period, but Sawada scored at 4:38 of the second to make it a 2-1 game and Wilson scored at 8:40 of the second and 12:04 of the second to give Texas a 3-2 lead. Rockford tied the game with 7:19 left in the game, but Morin scored off a rebound in overtime to give Texas the win.

The Stars host Houston Saturday night. 

The Stars have been outscored 11-2 in their first two games out of the break and dropped to 11th place, one point behind the surging Blues. They didn't, however, lose any ground on eighth place.

"As bad as we've played we're only two points out (of eighth place)," said Crawford. "It's correctable. We know it's correctable. We're a lot better than we are showing and we have to correct it very quickly."

Quickly as in by Saturday, when they kick off a road trip that will see them play three of the top teams in the East - Pittsburgh, Washington and Buffalo.

"Whether it's on the road or anywhere, we're down under 20 games. These outings can't happen anymore," said Stars center Brad Richards.

Stars goalie Marty Turco got bounced from the game early in the second period after giving up four goals on 11 shots, giving way to Kari Lehtonen, who made his Dallas debut a little earlier than expected. Lehtonen played 38:10, stopping 14 of 16 shots on the night.

"It was exciting. It was not the way I'd like things to start, but it felt fine, and I kind of got into it," said Lehtonen. "Now I feel a lot more comfortable, but it wasn't too much fun there after 4-1."

By the time Lehtonen got into the game the Stars were down 4-1 early in the second period. After Paul Kariya scored for St. Louis and Loui Eriksson scored for the Stars in the first period, the Blues took command of the game with a pair of goals 17 seconds apart late in the first.

Brad Boyes scored from the bottom of the left circle off a nice feed from Alex Steen at the 17:28 mark and then Kariya blasted a shot off the glove of Turco and into the net at the 17:45 mark.

"Obviously, it's disappointing to give up two goals late in the first like that. We've got to be stronger mentally," said Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas. "We've got to play hard and we've got to be ready for a challenge. It doesn't matter what's going on in a game - if we're down by a goal, or two or three, we've got to keep playing, keep doing our job and keep doing the right things."

Steen ended Turco's night when he scored off a shot from the slot 1:50 into the second period. The Stars had three consecutive power plays later in the period and a chance to cut into the lead, but couldn't cash in. The Blues added goals by Patrik Berglund and T.J. Oshie in the third to round out the scoring.

St. Louis has now won five games in a row to pull to within one point of eighth place in the Western Conference.

"Unfortunately it's taken us this long to get it going," Oshie said. "Now everyone is getting used to each other on a consistent basis."

The Stars head off a three-game road trip that will take them to Pittsburgh, Washington and Buffalo.

"It was fine," Lehtonen said. "A couple of the first shots there were bad rebounds and later on I tried to the play the puck a couple of times and it didn't work out too good. There are some things that need to get better, but I am sure they'll get better when I get more comfortable."

Said Stars coach Marc Crawford: "I thought he was fine. One goal went in off of Stephane Robidas' skate. I thought he looked good. I the third he had to face some really good chances . He's a big goaltender, butterfly guy, fills up a lot of the net. I think it's positive that he got those important minutes for him."

Lehtonen, whose last game action was a four-game conditioning stint in the AHL about a month ago, said his back felt fine.

"It was fine. That part felt good," he said. "We were worried about that, but it turned out good. I tried  every five minutes anyway to get up from the seat and do a little stretching and move around, so I think that helped."

Lehtonen's first save came with 12:26 left in the second period, when he stopped B.J. Crombeen's shorthanded chance from the right faceoff circle.

He surrendered his first goal when the Stars were scrambling in their own zone and David Perron got the rebound of his own shot and set up Patrik Berglund, who scored from point blank range.

The second goal came when a T.J. Oshie shot hit Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas' skate and slipped between Lehtonen's legs.

Fistric returns

Stars defenseman Mark Fistric, who missed the Stars last five games due to a knee injury that required arthroscopic surgery, was back in the lineup Thursday night. With Fistric back in, Jeff Woywitka was a healthy scratch.

Brandon Segal was also healthy scratch as Fabian Brunnstrom was back in the lineup after being a scratch in Tuesday's game.

• The Stars have been outscored 11-2 in their first two games out of the Olympic break.
• Stars opponents have scored 11 goals on 49 shots in the two games, giving the Stars a team save percentage of .776.
• The Stars lost two straight at home in regulation for the first time since October.