Stars hang on in Game 5 against Blues, take series lead

ST. LOUIS --Ben Bishop made 38 saves for the Dallas Stars in a 2-1 win against the St. Louis Blues in Game 5 of the Western Conference Second Round at Enterprise Center on Friday.

Jason Spezza and Esa Lindell scored for Dallas, which leads the best-of-7 series 3-2. Bishop made 14 saves in the third period, including eight after Jaden Schwartz made it a one-goal game for St. Louis off a Bishop turnover.
"It was a good game by everybody," Bishop said. "It was a little satisfying the fact that I made that error and was able to still close it out. That's probably the only satisfying thing. Other than that, it's a good win, and there's one more, which is the hardest one to win. We'll try to get some rest here and get ready for the next game."
WATCH: [Stars vs. Blues game 5 highlights | Complete series coverage]
Bishop stretched to make the left-pad save on Oskar Sundqvist with 4:15 remaining after the Blues forward took a pass from Tyler Bozak and cut across the top of the crease.
"I saw him there and he started to go around me, and then it's just desperation," Bishop said. "You just throw your leg out there, and luckily he hit it."

Jordan Binnington made 25 saves for St. Louis, which is 2-4 at home in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"A loss is a loss, it doesn't matter where it is," Schwartz said. "It's obviously tough, but we feel confident about bringing it back here. It has to be our best game."
The Stars would advance to the Western Conference Final with a win at home in Game 6 on Sunday.
"We just have to collect ourselves, get some rest, and get ready for a game," Spezza said. "It's going to come quickly with the afternoon game. We have a good opportunity to close out the series on home ice, and we have to make the most of it."
Spezza gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 2:42 of the first period with a one-timer from the slot off a Tyler Seguin pass from behind the net after Binnington made a point-blank save on Mattias Janmark. It was his third goal of the series.

The goal came after the Blues started the game with physical play.
"There was real good stretches where we were good, physical, on top of things, getting some looks," St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. "But there were other times when we were a little bit sloppy, for sure, with our puck play that caused them to get opportunities."
Lindell made it 2-0 at 6:13 of the second. He took a drop pass from Alexander Radulov high in the Blues zone and carried the puck down the middle of the ice. His backhand from near the top of the right hash marks caromed off defenseman Jay Bouwmeester's leg and over Binnington's glove.

"I was lucky that [Radulov] dropped it to me," Lindell said. "He likes handling those pucks. I guess I talked loud to him and he heard me. [John] Klingberg yelled at me there was a backchecker coming, so that's why I kind of moved more in the middle to the backhand and I just shot it. I think it changed direction. I was lucky it went in. It's always fun to score."
Schwartz scored his Blues-leading seventh goal of the playoffs to make it 2-1 at 8:26 of the third. After Alex Pietrangelo put the puck on the Dallas net from the St. Louis blue line, Bishop misplayed it to Schwartz for a quick shot from the bottom of the left face-off circle.

They said it

"We didn't show panic tonight. We were able to handle their best, their pressure fairly well. They had some pretty good chances still, but all in all, we've got [goalie Ben Bishop] back there to shut it down when we need him to." -- Stars forward Jason Dickinson
"The second period wasn't great, but when you only give up two goals, they didn't get a whole lot. I thought we played pretty well, especially in the first period and the third. I thought we controlled most of the game, but we've got to find ways to score more than one goal. One goal is tough this time of the year." -- Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo

Need to know

The Stars/Minnesota North Stars have a 10-1 series record when winning Game 5 in a best-of-7 series that was tied 2-2 (.909). The only loss came against the Blues in the 1972 Western Conference Quarterfinals. ... When the Blues have lost Game 5 at home in a series tied 2-2, they've gone on to lose the series in six games five straight times. They haven't won Game 5 at home in a tied series since the 2001 quarterfinals against the San Jose Sharks. ... Stars defenseman Dillon Heatherington made his NHL playoff debut, replacing Joel Hanley, who has an upper-body injury. Heatherington, who last played in the NHL on Nov. 10, is the ninth Dallas player to make his postseason debut this year. He had one hit and one blocked shot in 7:56.

What's next

Game 6 of Western Conference Second Round at American Airlines Center on Sunday (3 p.m. ET; NBC, SN, TVAS)