Dallas Stars 3, Calgary Flames 1

by Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

The suspension of forward Sean Avery earlier in the day proved to be no distraction for the Dallas Stars. Behind a superb 36-save performance by Marty Turco, the Stars beat the Calgary Flames 3-1 Tuesday night at Pengrowth Saddledome, giving the Stars their first two-game winning streak in the regular season since last February.

"It's what makes me so proud to play with these guys," said Turco. "We rallied around each other despite what happened and came out there with that effort."

Although the Flames got 37 shots on goal, the Stars threw out a defensive gem, clogging up the neutral zone and not giving the Flames a lot of quality chances. What Calgary did get, Turco cleaned up.

"They weren't going to get many by him tonight," said Stars defenseman Trevor Daley.

Toby Petersen, Fabian Brunnstrom and Loui Eriksson were the goal scorers for the Stars, who have now won three of their last four games.

The win capped off what was a chaotic day for the Stars. A day that started with controversial statements by Avery at the morning skate concerning Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf and his girlfriend, Elisha Cuthbert. A few hours later the league announced that Avery was suspended indefinitely pending a hearing with commissioner Gary Bettman.

While there was a circus like atmosphere before the game, it was all business when the Stars hit the ice at game time. Their effort was workmanlike and efficient.

"We'll take it, some guys played very well tonight," said Stars coach Dave Tippett, who dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen due to the Avery suspension. "Turco was excellent in goal. I thought Toby Petersen was excellent throughout the game, it was just a very good team win. We found a way to win in a very adverse situation with injuries and the controversy that surrounded our team today."

Petersen, bumped from fourth line center to third line center because of the rash injuries, scored off a rebound 6:14 into the game to give the Stars a 1-0 lead.

After David Moss tied it for Calgary early in the second, Turco held the fort as the Flames used their momentum to step up the pressure.

Brunnstrom, who played just one shift on Sunday but got more time on this night because the Stars only had 11 forwards to dress, took a pass from Daley, broke in on net, had his first shot turned away by Miikka Kiprusoff but then reached out with one hand and pushed the rebound into the net at the 7:53 mark for what would prove to be the game-winner.

“Daley had a great pass and I tried to catch up, get a good shot off and reach for the rebound,” said Brunnstrom, who now has seven goals on the season.

Turco would come up with some more big saves as the game moved along, including a back-to-back stops on Adrian Aucoin and a goal line stand that included a sharp save on Daymond Langkow. Eriksson would seal the win when he scored his 12th goal of the season, stealing the puck from Phaneuf and putting it into an empty net with 15 seconds remaining.

The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for Calgary, which had a chance to take over first place in the Northwest Division.

"I think we did have the opportunities," said Calgary head coach Mike Keenan. "We didn't have the next level of being sharp in terms of our execution. We missed many wide open nets so Marty had obviously a solid game stopping 36 shots but we missed 12 opportunities so we could have had a 50 shot night if we were sharp."

The Stars will be back in action Wednesday as the travel to Edmonton to take on the Oilers.