Friday, December 29, 2006

Dallas Stars 4, Nashville Predators 1

By Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

The Dallas Stars may be missing some key offensive players, but the team's power play is on a roll. For the second straight game the Stars power play scored three times and that was the difference in a 4-1 win over the Nashville Predators Friday night at the American Airlines Center.

Antti Miettinen scored twice on the power play and Jere Lehtinen scored a power play goal for the second straight game Friday. Patrik Stefan scored an empty net goal and Sergei Zubov and Mike Ribeiro each had two assists for the Stars, who won for the fourth time in the last five games.

"We have a lot of key players missing, but a lot of other guys are doing the job right now," said Ribeiro. "It doesn't matter who is in the lineup ... if you work together you have a better chance to win."

The win pulled the Stars (25-14-0) even with San Jose for second place in the Pacific Division. The two teams meet Sunday in Dallas.

The Predators (25-10-3), who lead Detroit by two points for first place in the Central Division, lost for just the second time in the last nine games.

Miettinen's goals were his first since November 27, when he scored a goal against the Detroit Red Wings.

"Lately I haven't been able to get to scoring chances and I haven't been able to create a good quality shot. Today the plays were there," Miettinen said.

The Stars penalty kill came up big as well, killing off all four power play chances by the Predators, who had scored at least one power play in eight straight games.

The Stars outshot the Predators 10-4 in the first period, but Nashville scored the only goal. It came off the rush when Alexander Radulov took a drop pass from Josef Vasicek and sent a cross-ice pass to a hard charging Scott Hartnell, who knocked the puck into the open side of the net from about ten feet out.

The Stars drew even in the second period with a power play goal at the 5:29 mark. After Predators goalie Chris Mason made a great stop on a point blank shot from Miettinen, a scramble ensued in front of the net. Jussi Jokinen knocked the puck over to Miettinen, who lifted the puck over Mason.

The Predators got themselves in the third period and the Stars made them pay, scoring twice on five-on-three power plays.

The first one came at 7:03 when Sergei Zubov sent a pass from the right faceoff circle to Lehtinen, who partially fanned on a shot from the side of the net but the puck slipped past Mason's pad to put Dallas up 2-1.

The Stars struck again on a five-on-three power play just 31 seconds later. This time it was Ribeiro who sent a pass from the faceoff circle to Miettinen, who scored off a one-timer from the side of the net to make it a 3-1 game.

Stefan rounded out the scoring with an empty net goal with 37 seconds left in the game.

Andrew's Dallas Stars Page has been online since the 1996-97 season. It was created by Mark Stepneski, who continues to run the site.

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