Stars power past Ducks with two in third

Devin Shore and Jamie Benn scored on the power play in the third period to lift the Dallas Stars to a 2-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks at American Airlines Center on Friday.

With Ducks rookie defenseman Marcus Pettersson in the penalty box for holding Antoine Roussel, Benn deflected a point shot from John Klingberg to give the Stars a 2-1 lead at 14:23.
"It was huge," Benn said. "We stuck with our game and found a way to draw a couple penalties with some hard work."
WATCH: [All Ducks vs. Stars highlights]
Kari Lehtonen made 26 saves for Dallas, which won for the first time in three games (1-1-1).
The Stars (38-24-6) hold the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference, three points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings, and trail the Minnesota Wild by three points for third place in the Central Division (the Wild won 5-2 at the Vancouver Canucks).
Ryan Getzlaf scored, and Ryan Miller made 35 saves for the Ducks, who have lost two in a row.
Anaheim (34-23-12) is in third in the Pacific Division, one point behind the second-place San Jose Sharks and one ahead of the Kings.
The Ducks had killed 26 straight penalties entering the third period.

"It hurts having those two penalty-kill goals. It's just one of those things where we have to be a little smarter," Anaheim defenseman Brandon Montour said. "Going into the period 1-0, anything can really happen. They put pressure, you have to give it to them, but for us it was one of those things where a couple plays hurt us and we got the tough end."
Shore tied the game 1-1 at 8:50. Tyler Seguin shot the puck toward the net from the top of the left face-off circle, and Shore redirected it from the slot with two seconds left on Corey Perry's penalty for closing his hand on the puck.
"It wasn't going well for probably 1:57 of that, but, once again, we stuck with it," Benn said. "It was nice to get that one."
Josh Manson, who leads Ducks defensemen with 30 points (five goals, 25 assists) and is the only Anaheim player to play in every game this season, went to the locker room with 10:04 left in the game after Dallas forward Remi Elie's skate blade hit him in the face. Manson returned to the bench but did not play again.

Getzlaf gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead at 17:16 of the first period, shooting over Lehtonen's right shoulder for his 10th goal off a pass from Corey Perry on a 2-on-1. The play started when Anaheim defenseman Francois Beauchemin blocked Benn's point shot. Rickard Rakell passed the puck to Perry, who cut into the middle at the Dallas blue line before passing the puck to Getzlaf on right.
Miller made 17 saves in the second period, and Manson kept Seguin from getting a clean shot on the open side of the net after Miller made saves on Seguin at 6:52 and Alexander Radulov at 6:54.
Stars coach Ken Hitchcock pulled Lehtonen for an extra attacker with 3.2 seconds left in the second period and the face-off in the Ducks zone.
"They brought a pretty good push there (in the second period)," Montour said. "I thought we stuck together. A lot of their chances were from the outside. … [Miller] stood tall and we helped him out as much as we could."
The Ducks pulled Miller with 1:19 remaining, and then had a 6-on-4 power play after Stars defenseman Stephen Johns was called for delay of game with 22 seconds left. Adam Henrique won the ensuing face-off, and Getzlaf took a shot with three seconds left, but Lehtonen made his 26th save.

Goal of the game

Benn's goal at 14:23 of the third period.

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Save of the game

Lehtonen stopping Hampus Lindholm at 18:40 of the third period.

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Highlight of the game

Shore's goal at 8:50 of the third period.

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They said it

"This time of year, we have [13] games left, every game matters, and I don't think we have any excuses anymore." -- Ducks defenseman Brandon Montour
"Every game is probably going to feel and look like that, right now, for the rest of the year. It's a demanding time for everybody right now." -- Stars coach Ken Hitchcock

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Need to know

Getzlaf has 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) in a five-game point streak. … Rakell played in his 300th NHL game. He had an assist on Getzlaf's goal and has 11 points (eight goals, three assists) in a six-game point streak. … Anaheim forward Jason Chimera was a healthy scratch for the first time since he was acquired in a trade from the New York Islanders on Feb. 26. ... Stars forward Mattias Janmark (illness) and defenseman Marc Methot (lower-body injury) each was a late scratch. … Dallas is 2-18-2 when trailing entering the third period.

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What's next

Ducks: Host the St. Louis Blues on Monday (10 p.m. ET; SNE, SNO, SNW, PRIME, FS-MW, NHL.TV)
Stars: At the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV)