Stars top Oilers 4-2
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
Playing their first game without center Brad Richards the Dallas Stars rolled out a solid defensive effort, got a couple of goals from their fourth line, won the special teams battle by scoring the only power play goal of the night and got another stellar performance from goalie Marty Turco. That all added up to a 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers Thursday night at American Airlines Center.
"A big credit to all the guys tonight, you can't replace some of the guys we've lost to injury and all of us pulled together," said forward Steve Ott. "It was a big team effort throughout for us."
The Stars got goals from Krys Barch, Ray Sawada, who was making his NHL debut, Fabian Brunnstrom and Jere Lehtinen. Mike Ribeiro had two assists. Turco stopped 21 of 23 shots.
"We competed and found a way to win," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "We played a better defensive game than we have the last few. We didn't give up too many shots, too many chances. We were much better in that area tonight."
The game was physical - featuring a total of 82 hits - and a late game scrum pushed the penalty minute total for the two teams to eighty-five.
"Anytime you are playing basically a playoff game it is going to be extremely physical. It was tonight," said Ott, who hit on Edmonton defenseman Tom Gilbert touched off the late game penalty fest. "They were one point behind us and we knew the implications the game were big, they were going to push and we tried to match it the best we could."
The win was the Stars' tenth in the the last 13 games (10-3-0) and was their 13th in the last 16 (13-2-1) at the AAC. The two points kept them in seventh place in the Western Conference standings and kept them ranked fifth in the conference based on points percentage.
"Every game right now is like a playoff game, the points are so valuable," Brunnstrom said. "It was a tough game and Edmonton played well, but I'm glad we played well and got the points."
The Stars took a 2-0 lead in the first period behind two goals from the fourth line. Brian Sutherby put on a big hit on Edmonton's Erik Cole in the Oilers zone to force a turnover, Brunnstrom, who was on the ice due to a line change at the time, got the puck, drove the net, put a shot on goal and Barch scored on the rebound to give Dallas a 1-0 lead 10:41 into the game.
Sawada, who was making his NHL debut on his 24th birthday, made it a 2-0 game when he took a pass from Ribeiro and backhanded the puck between Edmonton goalie Dwayne Roloson's legs from the right circle with 3:24 left in the period.
"This is going to be a great memory and hopefully there will be a lot more to come," said Sawada. "I came off the bench and was skating hard and went to my backhand. Coming here first and foremost was a great birthday present, but getting that goal was even better."
Said Tippett: "It was great to see Barchy and Sawada get our first two goals. Everyone has taken it to heart."
But the Oilers bounced back, scoring just 24 seconds after the Sawada goal to make it a 2-1 game and then 47 seconds into the second period to tie it.
The Stars then took the lead for good when they went on a four minute power play early in the second period. Loui Eriksson set up Brunnstrom, whose shot from the right circle slipped through Roloson's five hole 3:08 into the second period.
"I got a great pass from Loui and I was able to put it away," said Brunnstrom, who notched his fifth game-winning goal of the season, tops among all NHL rookies.
The Stars held the Oilers without a shot for the first half of the third period and extended the lead when Ott and Ribeiro helped set up Lehtinen, who scored from the top of the crease with 11:43 left to extend the lead to 4-2.
The Oilers fell three points behind the Stars in the standings and finished their four-game road trip with a 2-2-0 record.
"They were more disciplined than us in a number of categories," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. "We didn't start all that well, started turning the puck over again. We weren't willing to get the pucks in deep and play a simple game and get pucks to the net."
| First Period |
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Stars goalie Marty Turco came up with a couple of good stops early in the game, and the Stars took a 1-0 lead about halfway through the period. After Brian Sutherby nailed Edmonton's Erik Cole with a big hit in the Oilers zone, Fabian Brunnstrom stole the puck, drove the net, got off a shot and Krys Barch scored on the rebound at the 10:41 mark. The Stars made it 2-0 when Ray Sawada, making his NHL debut, took a pass from Mike Ribeiro and slipped a backhand shot through the legs of Edmonton goalie Dwayne Roloson from the bottom of the left circle at 16:36 of the period. But the Oilers struck back 24 seconds later
when Liam Reddox scored off the rebound of a point shot to make
it a 2-1 game heading into the first intermission. |
| Second Period |
|
The Oilers made it a 2-2 game 47 seconds into the second period when Shawn Horcoff got to a rebound off the end boards and backhanded the puck past a scrambling Marty Turco. But the Stars got the lead back when they went on a 4:00 power play about one minute later. The Stars cashed into the front half when Brunnstrom took a pass from Loui Eriksson and beat Roloson with an offspeed shot from right circle. Score after second period: Dallas 3, Edmonton
2 |
| Third Period |
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The Stars held the Oilers without a shot for the
first half of the third period and were able to extend their
lead at the 8:17 mark.
Steve Ott sent a long cross ice pass to Mike Ribeiro, whose centering pass from the left circle was knocked into the net by Jere Lehtinen to make it a 4-2 game. There was a major scrum late in the game after Ott nailed Oilers defenseman Tom Gilbert behind the net. A total of 57 minutes in penalties were handed out after that. The Oilers pulled Roloson with about four-and-a-half minutes to go for the extra attacker, but couldn't cut into the Stars' lead. Final score: Dallas 4, Edmonton 2 |
| Official Scoresheet | Official Super Stats |
