Sunday, October 21, 2007

Dallas Stars 3, Anaheim Ducks 1

By Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

DALLAS — The Dallas Stars kicked off a key stretch of divisional games with a strong showing in a 3-1 win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks Saturday night at the American Airlines Center.

Saturday's win starts a stretch of games that will seem play 10 of their next 11 and 12 of their next 14 games against Pacific Division foes.

Mike Ribeiro and Jere Lehtinen both had a goal and an assist and Brenden Morrow scored the other goal for the Stars, who won their second straight game, ran their points streak to five games (3-0-2) and improved to 4-2-2 on the season. Marty Turco was back in the net for the Stars and stopped 20 of 21 shots.

"It was a good team game and we'll take these two points," said Ribeiro, who has six points in five games since returning from an ankle injury. "It was probably our best game. Overall, we're happy with that."

The Ducks had a two-game winning streak snapped, dropped to 0-4-1 on the road this season and fell to 4-5-1 on the season.

"We didn't execute very well and do the little things you need to do to win," said Ducks captain Chris Pronger, who scored Anaheim's only goal.

The Stars came out with a lot of pressure early in the game and it paid off. They were able to draw a penalty and then cash in on the power play 2:04 into the game.

After Lehtinen was able to dig out a puck in the corner, Ribeiro sent a pass from behind the goal line to the front of the net, where Morrow knocked it past Ducks goalie J-S Giguere to give the Stars a 1-0 lead.

The Stars extended the lead to 3-0 in the second with a pair of goals 2:15 apart. The first one came on a delayed penalty as Ribeiro knocked home a rebound during a scramble in front of Giguere at the 7:48 mark.

Lehtinen scored his first of the season at 10:15 when Boucher's long pass from bounced off the end boards and Lehtinen blasted a shot past Giguere from the slot.

"It's nice to get on the board," Lehtinen said. "I was in the right place at the right time and was able to put one past him."

That was it for Giguere, who was pulled from the game and in came Ilya Bryzgalov.

"They had three goals in 11 shots," Carlyle said of the goalie change. "We hung our goalie out to dry. We were looking for some kind of spark."

The Ducks had a chance to get back in the game with a 1:56 of five-on-three power play time late in the second and they cashed in when Pronger beat a screened Turco with a slap shot at 18:24 of the period.

The Stars put the clamps down in the third period, limiting the Ducks to just four shots on goal.

Andrew's Dallas Stars Page has been online since 1996

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