Seguin scores in return, Stars surge past Coyotes

DALLAS -- Tyler Seguin scored in his return for the Dallas Stars, who defeated the Arizona Coyotes 5-2 at American Airlines Center on Wednesday.

Seguin had missed the previous 11 games due to a lower-body injury he sustained in a 4-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Feb. 22.

“Great to be back. Had a smile all day, couldn’t nap, it was just a lot of fun,” Seguin said. “It felt good. Personally, there’s a little rust in certain areas. I think I lost my first three draws, things like that. Definitely a game to build on.”

Jason Robertson had a goal and an assist, and Nils Lundkvist had two assists for Dallas (42-19-9), who have won seven of their past nine games. Jake Oettinger made 23 saves.

“I thought all our defense did a good job, and Nils was part of that. They did a good job of getting the puck to the net,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “That’s something this year that we’ve tried to preach, is not to complicate the game back there. Just get the puck to the net and get some action around the net. I think probably three of the goals were scored off defensemen getting pucks to the net, and he had two of them.”

Clayton Keller and John Leonard scored for Arizona (28-36-5), who had won two straight. Connor Ingram made 28 saves.

“We had a good start. In the second, they had a push and we turned the puck over too much,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. “They’re good around the net, and there’s a reason why they’re a Stanley Cup contender.”

Keller gave Arizona a 1-0 lead with 15 seconds left in the first period, beating Oettinger five-hole from the right face-off circle.

“We did a really good job in the first period of executing our game plan and doing what we tried to do,” Leonard said. “That was keeping things simple, being hard on the forecheck and good tracks on their rush. All those little things that add up. We did a really good job of that in the first period.”

Logan Stankoven tied it 1-1 at 7:34 of the second period, knocking in the rebound of Lundkvist’s shot during a delayed penalty. 

“Nice to bang one home,” Stankoven said. “I’ve realized not every single goal is going to be pretty for me. It’s just building confidence. Sometimes you have to go to the net and go to the hard areas. It’s good to score in different ways. Playoffs, goals are even harder to come by, so sometimes it’s where you’ve got to go.”

Jamie Benn gave Dallas a 2-1 lead at 11:55 when he redirected in a shot pass from Lundkvist as he drove to the front of the net.

Seguin then made it 3-1 at 12:24 off a behind-the-back pass from Matt Duchene on a 2-on-1 rush.

“I thought we should have had four or five rather than just one,” Duchene said of his line with Seguin and Mason Marchment. “Chemistry is something you can’t quantify. You can work on it always, but when it’s there, it’s there. [Seguin] is a [heck] of a player. You take him out of the lineup, take him off a line, there’s definitely a hole. It was really fun to play that way, kind of picked up where we left off. He had good jump for being out as long as he was.”

Robertson made it 4-1 at 4:12 of the third period when Thomas Harley's point shot deflected in off his skate at the top of the crease.

Craig Smith extended the lead to 5-1 at 5:25 on a rebound from the bottom of the right face-off circle.

Leonard cut the lead to 5-2 at 8:50 from the slot. It was the sixth goal of his career and first with Arizona (four games).

“It feels good to score, and it’s my first one with the Coyotes,” Leonard said. “It felt pretty good. We would have liked to have come out with a win, though.”

NOTES: Lundkvist left the game at 8:26 of the third period after a shot rolled up his stick and hit his face. DeBoer said Lundkvist needed stitches, and they hope it is nothing more. … Benn played his 1,100th NHL game. … Stars defenseman Jani Hakanpää missed the game due to a lower-body injury. … Keller has five goals in his past five games and became the first Coyotes player to record three straight 60-point seasons since Jeremy Roenick (1998-99 to 2000-01).