Johnny Gaudreau, Flames stay hot

DALLAS-- Johnny Gaudreau had a goal and an assist to help the Calgary Flames to a 2-1 win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Tuesday.
Gaudreau has four points in two games since returning from a fractured finger sustained Nov. 15 against the Minnesota Wild. He scored in the second period to tie the game 1-1 and then helped set up Sean Monahan's game-winning power-play goal in the third period.
"He has so much energy and he's so gifted with the puck that it gets everyone else buzzing," Flames goalie Chad Johnson said of Gaudreau. "I think everyone feeds off that and I think you can see that when he's in the lineup."

WATCH: All Flames vs. Stars highlights
Johnson made 29 saves for Calgary (14-13-2), which won its fourth in a row.
"I thought that the biggest save was early in the game when they had momentum," Flames coach Glen Gulutzan said. "I think it was Jordie Benn came down there and hit him off the shoulder, but he was in great position.
"The one thing we didn't want to do is give up one early to these guys and get them real hungry."
Dallas (10-11-6) thought it scored with 4:35 remaining in the third period, but a video review determined the goal was kicked into the net by Antoine Roussel.
Monahan scored at 9:49 of the third period when Brett Ritchie was in the box for holding.

Curtis McKenzie gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 13:15 of the first period when he scored unassisted on a rush. He forced a turnover near center ice and beat Johnson with a wrist shot for his third goal of the season, second in his past two games.
Gaudreau tied the game at 1-1 on a 2-on-0 break with Alex Chiasson at 12:19 of the second period.
Calgary appeared to take a 2-1 lead when Mark Giordano beat Lehtonen with a slap shot at 15:23 of the second period. The Stars challenged the play, and after review it was ruled Chiasson was offside.

Goal of the game

Monahan outworked the Stars defense when he tracked down his rebound for his eighth goal of the season.

Save of the game

Lehtonen made two breakaway saves on Gaudreau in the second period, including a sprawling right-pad save during 4-on-4 play at 6:27.

Highlight of the game

The rush that led to Gaudreau's goal started when Stars defenseman Jordie Benn made an errant pass entering the offensive zone and Flames defenseman T.J. Brodie poke-checked the loose puck to Monahan. He passed to Chiasson, who traded passes with Gaudreau.
"You can't give one of the most skilled players in the world three chances all alone like that," McKenzie said.

They said it

"It wasn't good enough. We just played a disastrous second period, we should have been down three or four. Our puck management and what we did with the puck. At the end of the night there is karma and you get what you deserve." -- Stars coach Lindy Ruff
"In the second, we really played well. We got excited with the breakaways that we had and then we created a lot of chances. The third period, I thought we sat back a little much, but we ended up not giving them a whole lot." -- Flames coach Glen Gulutzan
"It was a kind of scrambly there. We just tried to stay together as a unit, and they had a lot of skill and speed there, and they were just trying to throw pucks on in and looking for a break." -- Flames goalie Chad Johnson on the third-period push by the Stars

Need to know

Stars defenseman Julius Honka left the game with 7:41 remaining in the second period and didn't return after sustaining an upper-body injury. Ruff said Honka's injury didn't look serious but he wasn't able to play. … Gaudreau has six goals in eight career games against Dallas. He had a goal and an assist Sunday in an 8-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks.

What's next

Flames: At the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; FS-A, SNF, NHL.TV)
Stars: Host the Nashville Predators on Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET; FS-TN, FS-SW, NHL.TV)