Dallas Stars 4, Minnesota Wild 2

by Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

Marty Turco finally, actually steals a game for the Stars.

DALLAS — Marty Turco made 40 saves in his return to the net and his teammates scored four goals on just 18 shots as the Dallas Stars beat the Minnesota Wild 4-2 at American Airlines Center Tuesday night.

Turco, making his first start since January 24, was busy. He saw 14 shots in the first, 15 in the second and 13 more in the third. The 40 saves was a season high.

"I saw the puck pretty puck pretty good. I was excited to get back in there and was remembering some of the nuances and rituals that take place. It felt really good to get back out there," said Turco. "The guys played a good, solid game."

"Great night. He made some great saves," said Stars center Mike Modano. "We didn't give him too much help back there as far as the shots were concerned, but he obviously had a big bounce-back game for us, and that was something we needed."

While Turco was making some timely saves, the players in front of him were scoring some timely goals. Twice Minnesota scored to cut the Stars' lead in the game to one goal and both times the Stars responded by scoring within one minute to extend the lead back to two goals.

"The timely scoring that we had, the two goals directly after their goals -- you can't replace that," said Stars coach Marc Crawford. "As much as you score on your opportunities but it's the way you score, it just takes the wind right out of the opposition."

The Stars have won six of their last nine games (6-3-0) and improved to 9-2-0 in their last eleven games at home. When they skated off the ice Tuesday night, they were within one point of eighth place in the Western Conference. But they were three points out by the end of the night after Detroit rallied to beat the Sharks in San Jose.

Modano had one goal -- the game-winner -- and one assist. Jamie Benn had one goal and one assist as well. Brad Richards and James Neal also scored for the Stars.

Minnesota dominated the shot clock in the first period, but the Stars got the only goal when Neal deflected a Karlis Skrastins shot past Wild goalie Wade Dubielewicz. Richards extended the lead in the second period, scoring on the second of back-to-back power plays for the Stars.

The Wild appeared to get a big momentum boost when they scored on the second of back-to-back power play chances in the final minute of the period to make it a 2-1 game, but Modano answered 25 seconds later and with just 24.4 seconds left in the period to make it a 3-1 game.

"It's huge shifts, huge shifts," said Wild coach Todd Richards. "When you score or whether the other team scores, those are real, real, real important shifts from the fact that you battle, you're down 2-0. You battle, you finally get one, 2-1. There's some life now on the bench. There's a minute to go in the period and we give up a goal. That was huge."

Minnesota cut the lead to 3-2 with 3:57 left in the game, but the Stars answered just 53 seconds later when Benn forced a turnover and scored off a snap shot from the slot.

"We were on our heels in the third, and let them come at us and you could kind of see that coming. They scored, but to go right back, and force the issue and score was huge," said Richards. "We did it twice tonight after their goals. That's probably why we won the game, those two shifts after those goals."

Minnesota lost for the seventh time in their last eight road games and lost for the 12th straight time in Dallas. The Wild fell three points behind the Stars in the Western Conference standings. The Stars now hit the road to take on the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Thursday.