Dallas Stars 5, Anaheim Ducks 3

by Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

Stars end the year with two straight regulation wins.

DALLAS — A bounce here and a few inches there and Stars forward Loui Eriksson could have scored five goals Thursday night, maybe six. But he had to settle for three and that was plenty as the Dallas Stars beat the Anaheim Ducks 5-3 at American Airlines Center.

"It's always fun to score a hat trick," Eriksson said. "I even had some more chances out there. Obviously, when we get the win also it's even more fun."

Stephane Robidas and Brad Richards also scored for the Stars, who improved to 8-1-2 in their last 11 games at home and have won four of their last six games overall (4-2-0).

"It's a big win," said Richards, who had two assists to go along with his goal. "It's two in a row."

While Eriksson was celebrating three goals the Stars were celebrating two, as in two wins in a row. It was the first time they've won two in a row since beating New Jersey on November 21 and Carolina on November 23, and it's only the third time this season they've won consecutive games.

"We need to put some in the bank here," Richards said. "It's going to be a dogfight right to the end. There's a lot of teams in it, and we've got another big one coming up. We've got to keep our foot on the gas."

Both teams scored once in the first with Eriksson scoring shorthanded off a nice setup by Mike Ribeiro and Saku Koivu answering for the Ducks. Mike Brown gave Anaheim the lead early in the second, but the Stars scored two goals 30 seconds apart later in the period to take the lead for good.

Eriksson tied the game after breaking in on net and as he was getting hooked he one-handed a puck on net from a sharp angle and it slipped through Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller at 6:29 of the second.

"I worked on that all year," Eriksson joked during the second intermission interview on the Stars television broadcast. "

Third seconds later James Neal got the puck to Stephane Robidas, whose blast from the right point bounced off Ducks defenseman Nick Boynton and past Hiller.

"We got a few lucky bounces, like my goal, but you never know what's going to happen when you put pucks on net. Sometimes you get ugly ones," said Robidas. "But you'll take them."

The Stars extended the lead to 4-2 later in the second when Richards made a pretty cross-ice pass to Eriksson, who tapped the puck past Hiller for his third goal of the game. It was a strong second period for the Stars, who outscored the Ducks 3-1 while outshooting them 19-10.

"I thought we did a great job of responding to a lot of things tonight," said Stars head coach Marc Crawford. "I thought we really skated and the skating advantage that we had showed up in the offensive zone. When we used our speed and kept our feet moving we created a lot of offensive chances and gave them a lot of trouble."

Richards made it 5-2 with a power play goal in the third period. Koivu scored a late goal for the Ducks, who have lost three of four and are are now 16-17-7 on the season.

"Somewhere along the way in the first period we lost our composure," Anaheim forward Bobby Ryan said. "These games should be easy to get up for, and for whatever reason we're not coming through."

The Stars wrap up their three-game homestand Saturday afternoon against Vancouver.