OTTAWA - Antoine Roussel scored the winner late in the third period as the Dallas Stars beat the Ottawa Senators 2-1 on Sunday night.
Jason Spezza also scored for the Stars (40-20-7) with Kari Lehtonen making 23 saves for the win in net.
Zack Smith scored the lone goal for Ottawa (31-29-7). Andrew Hammond turned aside 23 shots in defeat.
The loss leaves the Senators six points back of the Detroit Red Wings for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Despite playing the night before, Ottawa was strong in the third period, but struggled to score.
The Senators appeared to take the lead five minutes into the third when Curtis Lazar found the back of the net. But the Stars made a challenge that the play was offside and upon review it showed Mike Hoffman was just a step ahead of the play.
Smith opened the scoring with his 18th of the season at 4:45 of the second. Mark Stone made a great pass from behind the net to Smith in front who buried it.
The Stars tied the game at 14:05 on the power play as Spezza fired a shot through traffic. Spezza, a former Senator, has now scored a goal against all 30 NHL teams.
Roussel gave Dallas the lead at 17:46 of the third as the Sens scrambled in their own end.
Despite a scoreless first period the Senators were able to gain some momentum off some good scoring chances.
Smith was stopped from in close and Ryan Dzingel had a great chance midway through the period, but Lehtonen was solid.
Ottawa heads out for a two-game road trip with stops in Carolina and Florida before returning home to host Toronto on Saturday.
Notes: Ottawa defenceman Marc Methot played his 500th NHL career game. Goaltender Craig Anderson remains day-to-day with a knee injury. Defenceman Michael Kostka made his Senators debut in place of Patrick Wiercioch. The Stars were without left winger Patrick Sharp (lower body) and right winger Patrick Eaves (ill).
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