Benn scores 2nd goal with :23 left, Stars edge Blues for 6th straight win

DALLAS -- Jamie Benn scored his second goal of the game with 23 seconds remaining in the third period to help the Dallas Stars defeat the St. Louis Blues 5-4 at American Airlines Center on Wednesday.

Benn finished off a cross-ice pass from Miro Heiskanen, beating a sprawling Jordan Binnington from the right face-off dot to put the Stars up 5-4 after they had blown a two-goal, third-period lead.

“We don’t want to be giving up goals [late in the third], but finding ways to win these is big and getting two points is important,” Benn said. “Always something to work on as a group. We’re not perfect by any means, but I like the way we find ways to win. Get some rest, come back, and work at our game. We’re in for a sprint after these Olympics and it’ll be fun.”

Benn also had an assist, Jason Robertson and Matt Duchene each had a goal and an assist and Heiskanen had two assists for the Stars (34-14-9), who enter the Olympic break having won six straight and seven of the past eight games. Jake Oettinger made 14 saves.

“I thought we were very good through two [periods]. Better than we were any of the previous two matches against them,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “Early on, I thought we were a little too loose in the third. We weren’t pushing, we were a little complacent, I felt. Couple of turnovers early, just kind of fed their attack. They made us take a penalty early and then we started to press a little bit after it was 4-3. I give them credit. They came out and played hard. This series of three games, they deserved better fates than losing in the last minutes.”

Jordan Kyrou and Jimmy Snuggerud each had a goal and an assist, and Justin Faulk had two assists for the Blues (20-28-9), who enter the Olympic break with one win in their past nine games (1-7-1). Binnington made 23 saves.

“Even though we were up 2-1, I thought Dallas was territorially dominant,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “The second period did not get much better. The third period we came out with a spirited effort. We pushed for the comeback and then we made a real bad mistake at the end. This is the third time we lose in the last minute against Dallas in our last three games. Our last three games we played I believe we're not playing smart enough hockey to be able to get points or win.”

Snuggerud cut the lead to 4-3 at 11:05 in the third period on a shot from the high slot through traffic.

“Pavel [Buchnevich] played great all game. Brayden [Schenn] is talking up the locker room. He’s one of the best leaders and it’s nice to have the talk and be with each other. You just want to win games and unfortunately, we’re not,” Snuggerud said. “I thought we competed hard and fought back. It just doesn’t go our way at the end of the game.”

Alexey Toropchenko tied it 4-4 at 15:31 when he rushed the front of the net and Philip Broberg fed him a no-look backhand pass from the goal line.

“The tying goal is an unbelievable play by Broberg over there,” Duchene said. “We just want to create more in the third period when we’re up goals. We want to push for that one. Good teams do that. We’re going to have hopefully leads in the playoffs and we’re going to have teams that are desperate and trying to come back and throwing everything at us. We’ve got to handle it a little bit better. Good to go through it now and learn from it now than when it counts.

Buchnevich gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 7:29 of the first period on a one-timer from the left face-off circle on the power play.

Robertson tied it 1-1 at 11:37 on a wrist shot at a sharp angle from the goal line when Mikko Rantanen found him on a cross-ice pass. It was his 200th NHL goal.

Kyrou gave the Blues a 2-1 lead at 18:33 on a shot from the right face-off circle that picked the far corner over Oettinger’s shoulder.

“I wouldn’t call it a fantastic game on our part. We battled back in the third period,” Faulk said. “We felt like we got away with one there in the first and then got two more. We got a penalty kill and started rolling in the second period to try to feel the game a little bit better, but it put us behind though. The get back was nice to see but pretty disappointing that three times in a row [we’ve lost] with a minute or less left.”

Duchene tied it 2-2 at 1:56 in the second period on a rebound shot from the bottom of the right circle on the power play.

Mavrik Bourque gave the Stars a 3-2 lead at 3:58 when he capitalized on a Robertson rebound in the slot.

Benn extended the lead to 4-2 at 11:57 on a wrist shot from the inside of the left face-off circle.

“I think we’ve seen it a lot these last few games, our details are a lot better. It showed up in the game and I think we were more consistent from shift to shift,” Bourque said. “We felt like our details were not really good since Christmas. We showed the way we can play, and now it’s just to stick with it and show it game after game.”

NOTES: Robertson (431 games) became the second-fastest player to record 200 goals in franchise history behind Dino Ciccarelli (381). … All six of the wins in Dallas’ streak have been by one goal.