Canucks defeat Stars for 5th straight win

VANCOUVER -- The Vancouver Canucks extended their winning streak to five games with a 5-2 victory against the Dallas Stars at Rogers Arena on Tuesday.

"Guys are excited. That's a tough team over there," Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. "We knew it was going to be a tough game, but when you play the Dallas Stars to win your fifth, it's obviously a feather in the guys' caps. They deserve a lot of praise."
J.T. Miller had a goal and an assist, Guillaume Brisebois scored his first NHL goal, and Brock Boeser had three assists for the Canucks (29-32-5), who are 8-2-1 in their past 11 games. Thatcher Demko made 25 saves.
"It's huge for our group," Boeser said. "Our group has been working hard in practice and really trying to dial in the structure and get these wins. It gives us confidence and shows if we play the right way, we can be a really good team in this league."

Jamie Benn had a goal and an assist, and Miro Heiskanen had two assists for the Stars (37-18-13), who had won the first three games of their six-game road trip, including 5-2 at the Seattle Kraken on Monday.
Dallas, which was held to fewer than four goals for the first time in nine games, remained three points ahead of the Minnesota Wild for first in the Central Division.
"There's no quit in our group," Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. "I didn't think we had our best stuff tonight, and I anticipated that with the road we've been on, but still a winnable game. We pushed in the third, just gave up some untimely stuff."
Matt Murray made 14 saves in his second NHL start.
"I thought he did a good job," DeBoer said. "A big ask for him in this situation. He made some big saves to keep the game close at different moments, and he's a young guy, it's only his second game, so a lot of potential there."

Phillip Di Giuseppe put Vancouver ahead 1-0 at 1:35 of the first period, driving to the net and redirecting in a centering pass from Miller with his backhand.
Andrei Kuzmenko made it 2-0 at 6:00 with a power-play goal. He shot into an open net off a cross-ice pass from Conor Garland, who got Murray to commit with a fake shot from the right circle.
Boeser had the secondary assist on the play for his 300th NHL point.
"Vancouver has been awesome to me, and the city has been awesome to me and I've enjoyed my time here," Boeser said. "So it's a pretty special moment."

Wyatt Johnston scored 48 seconds into the second period to cut it to 2-1, one-timing a cross-slot pass from Benn on a rush, but Anthony Beauvillier pushed it to 3-1 at 11:53 by redirecting Christian Wolanin's point shot under Murray's blocker.
Benn made it 3-2 with five seconds left in the period when he shot low blocker side from the high slot during a power play.
"After the second I thought we were in a good spot," Benn said. "We couldn't find a way to battle back tonight."
Heiskanen, who had the only assist on Benn's goal, has 14 points (three goals, 11 assists) during an NHL career-high eight-game point streak.
"I just try to skate a lot and play a lot with the puck and help the forwards to play some offense, but it's not a big change from what I've done," Heiskanen said. "Maybe a little more active."

Brisebois, who was playing in his 12th game this season and 22nd in the NHL, made it 4-2 at 4:09 of the third period. He jumped in on a rush and one-timed a backhand pass from Nils Aman glove side from the right hash marks.
"I can't really put words into it," Brisebois said. "Now I can reflect on it and I'm pretty happy. The guys made an unbelievable play on the sequence, so I'm really grateful for that."
Miller extended it to 5-2 at 16:58, kicking a pass from Boeser to his stick and scoring glove side from the high slot.
NOTES: Kuzmenko has scored 11 goals in his past 12 games. He also has six points (five goals, one assist) during a five-game point streak. … Stars forward Mason Marchment was sent back to Dallas to be evaluated after he sustained an injury to his left leg following a knee-on-knee collision late in the third period of the win against the Kraken on Monday. … Stars forward Luke Glendening had two hits in 10:11 of ice time in his return after missing 11 games with an upper-body injury. … Canucks forward Elias Pettersson had an assist to extend his point streak to five games (two goals, five assists).