Stars score in third to take Game 1 from Blues

DALLAS-- Radek Faksa scored with 4:44 left in the third period to give the Dallas Stars a 2-1 win against the St. Louis Blues in Game 1 of the Western Conference Second Round at American Airlines Center on Friday.
Blues goaltender Brian Elliott denied an Ales Hemsky shot, but Faksa was there to tap in the rebound for his second goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"It was a good breakout by us," Faksa said. "It was a nice pass by Alex Goligoski. We had pretty much a 3-on-2 … [Hemsky] took it to the net and I picked up the rebound. It's a great play by Alex and [Hemsky]."
Faksa also scored the winning goal in Game 1 of the first round against the Minnesota Wild on April 14, a series Dallas won in six games.
"He brings an enthusiasm, a big smile on his face, this willingness to do whatever it takes to win right now," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "He's having a great time. He's a kid that he's enjoying every minute he plays and you can see it in his game. There isn't a battle he doesn't want to engage in, there's not a play he quits on. His play has been infectious for our team."

Antoine Roussel scored, and Kari Lehtonen made 31 saves for Dallas.
Kevin Shattenkirk scored, and Elliott made 40 saves for St. Louis.
"Well, I think we've got to get an emotional level way up from what we just played at," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We've got to find a gear that we were at before, and that gear wasn't there tonight, so we've got to find it here. It doesn't matter how we do it, we're going to have to find it though."

Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is here on Sunday (3 p.m. ET; NBC, SN, TVA Sports).
"It's one game, we learned a lot tonight," Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester said. "So, you want to win one on the road and we've got a chance to do that."

Roussel gave Dallas a 1-0 lead 9:36 into the second period with his second goal of the playoffs off a rebound. Faksa took the initial shot.
"Well, their effort was great," Ruff said of his third line of Roussel, Faksa and Hemsky. "I think after their goal [by Shattenkirk], we really felt that we needed a push and I thought we went after it again. We had a couple real good opportunities."
Shattenkirk tied it 1-1 with 8:28 remaining in the third period when he one-timed a slap shot past Lehtonen from the left point. Shattenkirk received a cross-ice pass from Colton Parayko.
"We had a real good push there for about 12 minutes in the third period," Hitchcock said. "That's kind of the formula we need to follow and get back to our game, but we've got to find the energy to play our game and we've got to find it quickly here in the next 48 hours."

Dallas outshot St. Louis 31-17 in the first two periods.
"I think they were winning a lot more battles," Blues captain David Backes said. "That was them being really engaged and us being not that engaged. They were more engaged than we were at the puck and won more puck battles."
Dallas limited St. Louis forward Vladimir Tarasenko, fourth in the NHL with 40 goals this season, to three shots. Tarasenko scored four goals in the seven-game first-round win against the Chicago Blackhawks.

"Well, obviously he's one guy that we've got the radar on, that we know when he's out there we want to make sure we don't give him much ice," Ruff said. "I thought for the most part we didn't make any mistakes that allowed any big rush plays when he was out there, and we closed fast on him inside the zone."
Dallas lost veteran forward Patrick Eaves to a lower-body injury 5:05 into the third period when he was struck by a slap shot by teammate Stephen Johns. Eaves slowly left the ice on his own but needed help to the locker room.
"Yeah, no report now [on Eaves]," Ruff said. "He didn't finish the game and we'll probably find out more tomorrow."