Dallas Stars 3, Calgary Flames 1

by Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

DALLAS — The Dallas Stars opened a key stretch of games in February the same way they ended January - with a win. Behind a power play that scored twice and the goaltending of Marty Turco, the Stars ran their season-high winning streak to five games Tuesday night with a 3-1 win over the Calgary Flames at American Airlines Center.

"It's been a great sight to see, doing whatever it takes to win games, blocking shots, clicking on the power play," said Turco, who stopped 24 of 25 shots. "It's been a lot of fun and we are still in a clump of teams fighting for position."

The win gave the Stars 55 points (24-18-7), gave them sole possession of sixth place in the Western Conference and moved them to within two points of fifth place Anaheim, which has played four more games than the Stars.

"We played a pretty solid game," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "I thought we had contributions right throughout the lineup. It was a solid effort, similar to what we've been getting here lately. Our scoring is spread around. It's good to see our power play get a couple goals. ... We're playing solid hockey right now. We're playing well without the puck."

James Neal and Brad Richards each had a goal and assist and Jere Lehtinen also scored a goal for the Stars, who are 7-1-1 in their last nine games and 17-7-3 since November 30.

"We've come together the last month," Stars center Brad Richards said. "It took some time for everybody to get together."

The Stars power play struck on its first two chances in the game, finished 2-5 on the night and is now 10-40 (25.0 percent) over the last nine games.

“We’ve been scoring some big goals,” Richards said about the power play. “Obviously, tonight, two guys in front of the net, getting traffic, it’s as simple as that sometimes. Nothing pretty, just putting pucks towards the net. We got two guys tipping them and that creates havoc."

The Stars fell behind early in the game when Calgary's Mike Cammalleri scored on Calgary's first power play of the night 6:52 into the first period. Cammalleri scored off a scramble in front of Turco for his 26th goal of the season and his 13th on the power play.

But the Stars got their first power play late in the first when Calgary forward Todd Bertuzzi hit Steve Ott in the back in the neutral zone and took an interference penalty. Just 22 seconds later Lehtinen deflected a Matt Niskanen shot past Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff to tie the game at 1-1.

The Stars took the lead 4:21 into the second period by cashing in on their second power play chance of the game. This time it was Neal knocking home a point shot. After Richards put a shot on net, Neal got a stick on it, got it back and put it into the net for his 16th goal of the season.

"We're starting to shoot the puck and look for guys' sticks up front and that's what you've got to do to score goals," said Neal, who has three goals in the last two games.

Both Turco and Kiprusoff get it a 2-1 game with some sharp saves through the rest of the second period and into the third, but Neal and Richards hooked up again to extend the Stars' lead to 3-1 late in the third.

Neal got to a puck in the Flames' zone and played some give-and-go with Richards, who beat Kiprusoff with a backhand shot with 3:16 remaining in the game.

"Neal made a good play chasing down the icing and fortunately I had time to wait the goalie out," said Richards. "Neal made a nice play and it was a good time to get a goal. "

The loss was the second straight for the Flames, who also lost 4-3 at Colorado Monday night. The Flames are now 11-11-1 on the road this season.

"Obviously we're not playing well on the road right now," Calgary center Craig Conroy said. "Enough with the excuses. We have to play better on the road. There are a lot of opportunities to do that. We're giving away points right now."

The Stars, who kicked off a stretch that will see them play 10 of 13 games at home in February, are 9-1-1 in their last nine games at the American Airlines Center.

"We're at home for awhile and we're starting to put points together and wins together," said Neal. "Its fun to be around the rink right now."