Ribeiro's OT blast gives Stars 3-2 win over Flames

DALLAS -- Mike Ribeiro used a little flash and a big smash to give the Dallas Stars a win they desperately needed.

Ribeiro stickhandled his way out of traffic, weaved near the top of the right circle and put everything he had into a slap shot that caught the far corner of the net 2:01 into overtime, giving the Stars a 3-2 victory against the Calgary Flames on Thursday night.

Ribeiro changed hands on his stick, the way Gordie Howe used to, before switching back and beating Miikka Kiprusoff, who was screened by his own defenseman, Mark Giordano.

"Yeah, I don't know if it was a little Gordie Howe-ish there where he's changing hands and then changing back," Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said of Ribeiro's move. "I'm glad he shot it because we bug him to shoot all the time, and it was a real nice shot."

The win snapped a three-game losing streak and gives the Stars 61 points. Eighth-place Phoenix, playing later at Los Angeles, began the night in eighth place with 63. The single point gives the Flames 63 as well -- and left coach Brent Sutter not entirely unhappy despite the loss.

"Yeah, we'll take the point," Sutter said. "We need to be better. We're not a good enough hockey team to think we can have lapses in games. I thought we made some mistakes here tonight that we can learn from and be better at. But on the positive side, we found a way to get a point."

The win came after the Stars lost their top scorer, All-Star center Jamie Benn, who left in the second period with a knee injury and didn't return.

"We need to close games better and to be able to get two points today was the main thing.  It doesn't matter how you get them nowadays, just get some points and we were able to get two," Ribeiro said.

Dallas struck first when Adam Burish flipped a short shot over the glove of Kiprusoff at 9:42 of the first period. Burish has now scored in consecutive games for the first time since February 2009, when he was with Chicago. Jake Dowell, a close friend and teammate of Burish's both with the Blackhawks and collegiately at Wisconsin, got the primary assist by lifting the puck over the left side of the net and to Burish, who was waiting to the right of the Calgary goal.

It looked like Dallas would head to the first break with a 1-0 lead -- but Calgary captain Jarome Iginla tipped a give-and-go feed from Alex Tanguay past Kari Lehtonen at 19:07 to get the Flames even.

Benn left with his injury at 8:21 of the middle period -- he hurt his left knee after he took a skate to the back of the leg while battling for a puck with Giordano.
 
"He got cut in the leg there, got hit with a skate," Gulutzan said. "It's a pretty decent-sized cut, so he's going to be day-to-day. It's a possibility he could play maybe not in Phoenix on Saturday but here on Sunday (against Nashville)."

The Stars went ahead at 17:43 when Ribeiro's behind-the-back power-play pass set up Steve Ott for a 40-foot slapper that beat Kiprusoff.

Olli Jokinen nearly tied it midway through the third period, but hit the right post during a power play. Lehtonen denied chances by Iginla, Mike Cammalleri and Giordano within a 20-second span later in the same advantage.

Ott was sent off for charging at 12:47 and Dallas killed the penalty, only to have the Flames tie it 10 seconds after the power play ended when a wide-open Cammalleri came out from behind the net and fired a wrister past Lehtonen after a pass from Jay Bouwmeester glanced off Dallas defenseman Alex Goligoski.

"I thought (Cammalleri) played well tonight," Sutter said. "I thought he was probably our best forward here tonight. He generates some stuff. He makes some things happen but I did like his game tonight. I thought that he had the puck a lot on his stick and his defensive zone coverage was good too."

Lehtonen stopped 25 of 27 shots for the win while Kiprusoff stopped 29 of 32 shots for Calgary.

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