Parrish’s hat trick leads Stars past Ducks
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
The Dallas Stars' decision to sign free agent right wing Mark Parrish paid immediate dividends. Parrish, signed earlier this week, scored three goals as the Stars beat the Anaheim Ducks 5-2 Friday night at Honda Center.
"I was hoping to get off to a good start, but I wasn't expecting that," said Parrish. "Some nice bounces kind of came my way and there were some great plays by my linemates."
Parrish played on a line with center Mike Modano and left wing Sean Avery.
"It's a different look," Modano said. "We needed a right-handed shot. With the forwards we have that are left-handed working the other side of the ice, we needed a right-handed shot down low."
The hat trick was the sixth of Parrish's NHL career.
"He showed what we knew was in his game," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "He was a solid player for us."
Parrish, who was playing last weekend with Bridgeport of the AHL, scored twice on the power play and once at even strength for the Stars, who kicked off a key road trip against divisional foes with a big win.
"I think playing the Ducks here brings out the best in us," said Stars goalie Marty Turco. "It’s important to get a win no matter what and build on this moving forward.”
Fabian Brunnstrom and Brad Richards also scored for the Stars, who improved to 5-6-2 on the season and 3-5-0 on the road.
A lot of the things that hadn't been going the Stars' way during their slow start this season went their way on this night.
The Stars, who got defenseman Sergei Zubov back in the lineup for the first time this season, were much better defensively. They kept the Ducks big line of Chris Kunitz, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry in check most of the night.
They got excellent goaltending. Turco turned in a rock solid game in net, stopping 28 of 30 shots on the night and helping thwart the Ducks' forecheck with his puckhandling.
“I’ve been working hard and we’ve been through some rough patches," Turco said. "I wasn’t myself, but tonight is a step in the right direction."
They got the all important early lead when Brunnstrom scored his team leading sixth goal of the season 7:07 into team.
The Stars got a big game from their special teams. Parrish scored on the Stars' first power play to extend that 1-0 lead to 2-0 midway through the first period. Parrish scored again on the power early in the second period to extend the Stars lead to 3-1. The power play ended up 2-5 on the night and the penalty kill came up with big stops when the game was still up for grabs.
Parish would scored later in the second period to extend the lead to 4-1 and Richards scored off a rebound in the third to make it a 5-1 game.
“We took a step in the right direction, we can grab some positives from this,” said Tippett. “We need to play well every night, we are not where we want to be in the standings so we have to keep pushing.”
The Ducks, who fell to 9-6-1 on the season, had a nine-game points streak snapped with the loss. They got goals from Brendan Morrison and a late power play goal from Teemu Selanne that cut the final margin of Dallas' victory to 5-2.
"We got away from our game of just the hard work, the skating and the simple things," said Ducks captain Scott Niedermayer. "They came out and did those things. They had us back a little bit and got those early goals. When you’re playing against a team that is pretty determined defensively like they were, it’s tough to turn it around. We tried, but we weren’t able to do it."
Now the Stars will try to do something they haven't been able to do since late February - win consecutive regular season games. They'll get their next chance to do that Saturday when they take on the league-leading Sharks in San Jose.
| Game Recap |
| First Period |
|
The Stars got off to a quick start, taking a 2-0 lead in the first period. Some good work by the line of Brenden Morrow, Mike Ribeiro and Fabian Brunnstrom led to the first goal at the 7:07 mark, which was scored by Brunnstrom from right in front of the net. The Stars scored on their first power play chance at 10:44 when Sean Avery sent a pass from behind the net to Mark Parrish, who scored from the right circle at 10:44. The Ducks got one of the goals back at the
17:28 mark when Kent Huskins' shot from the slot got behind
Stars goalie Marty Turco and Brendan Morrison knocked the puck
into the net to make it a 2-1 game heading into the first
intermission. |
| Second Period |
|
The Stars struck on their second power play 1:13 into the second period to make it a 3-1 game. Parrish scored his second of the game he scored off a rebound of a Mike Ribeiro shot. Parrish made it a 4-1 game at 5:52 when Anaheim defenseman Scott Niedermayer fell down at his own blue line and lost the puck. Parrish skated in and beat Ducks goalie J-S Giguere with a wrist shot from about 45 feet at the 5:52 mark. That was it for Giguere, who was replaced by Jonas Hiller. Score after second period: Dallas 4, Anaheim 1 |
| Third Period |
|
The Stars came up with two big penalty kills
early in the third period to keep it a 4-1 game and the Stars
made it a 5-1 game at the 9:07 mark when Brad Richards poked
home the rebound of a Steve Ott shot from the slot. The Ducks
scored on a power play chance at 10:35 when Teemu Selanne tipped
home a Chris Pronger point shot to round out the scoring in the
game. |
| Official Scoresheet | Official Super Stats |
