Dallas Stars (24-7-5) scored four goals in the first period and then defeated the Anaheim Ducks (20-13-2) 8-3 at the Honda Center on Friday night.
Oskar Back, Roope Hintz, Sam Steel, Thomas Harey, Jason Robertson, Adam Erne and Ilya Lyubushkin scored for the Stars. Casey DeSmith made 23 saves.
Related: Casey DeSmith is the Dallas Stars’ secret weapon
Ryan Poehling and Beckett Sennecke scored for the Ducks. Lukas Dostal made three saves on seven shots, and Petr Mrazek made 14 saves in relief.
Summary of the game
The Stars scored a shorthanded goal at 2:37 of the first period to take an early 1-0 lead. Radek Faska caused a turnover behind the Anaheim net, fed Back in front and Back scored one-time from the top of the crease.
Poehling tied the game less than a minute later after grabbing the rebound, kicking the puck to himself and firing the puck past DeSmith from the left side of the crease.
Hintz scored at 4:42 to make it three goals in the first five minutes of the game. Robertson found Hintz in the slot with a nifty backhand pass from the corner, and Hintz sent a top-shelf wrist shot over Dostal’s blocker for his 11th goal of the season.
Turnovers were the story of the game for the Ducks, and it cost them again at 12:41 as Steel doubled the Stars’ lead. After an Anaheim turnover in the Stars zone, Jamie Benn delivered a pass off the boards to Steel, and Steel shot into the Ducks’ crease, scored and knocked the net off in the process. The goal was reviewed, but upheld.
Harley capped off a wild 20 minutes with a snap in the slot to give the Stars a 4-1 lead. Mikael Granlund flipped the puck to Mikko Rantanen in the neutral zone, and Rantanen found Harley with his signature pass from the right board.
The hot power play for the Stars continued with Robertson’s 21st goal of the season at 11:10 of the middle period. After grabbing the puck on the right side of the crease, Robertson pulled the puck across the crease with his backhand and placed it past Mrazek’s left pad to give the Stars a 5–1 lead.
After another Anaheim turnover, Hintz found Robertson in the slot, and Robertson sent a backhand bar-down for his second goal in exactly four minutes, scoring it at 15:10.
In his first game back from injury, Erne continued the attack with a wrist shot off a Harley rebound to push the lead to 7-1.
At 1:01 of the final period, Sennecke knocked in a one-timer from the left circle off a cross-ice pass from Mason McTavish for his 11th goal of the season.
Lyubushkin scored his first goal of the season just 41 seconds later on a snap that took the left corner and gave the Stars an 8–2 lead.
Granlund scored a rebound for his fifth of the season at 14:22 to make the final score 8-3.
The Ducks outscored the Stars 26-25 and went 0-for-3 on the power play, while the Stars went 1-for-2.
Next
The Ducks host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday nightand the Stars hosts the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday evening.
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