Dostal makes 24 saves, Ducks hold off Stars to end 9-game slide

ANAHEIM -- Lukas Dostal made 24 saves, and the Anaheim Ducks ended a nine-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory against the Dallas Stars at Honda Center on Tuesday.

“When we play the right way, we are getting the results," Dostal said. "It was a long time coming for us. Hopefully, the dark times are over, and we can just build on (this win).”

Chris Kreider, Beckett Sennecke and Jacob Trouba scored for the Ducks (22-21-3), who went 0-8-1 during their skid and won for the first time since Dec. 20, a 4-3 victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Anaheim had allowed at least five goals in each of its previous five games and seven of its past eight.

"We didn't want to have that one to get to 10 games," Sennecke said of the losing streak. "We're super pumped to finally get back into that win column and, hopefully, go on a little bit of a heater here."

Leo Carlsson missed the game with a lower-body injury, Cutter Gauthier sat out with an illness, and Troy Terry missed his third straight game for Anaheim with an upper-body injury. All three participated in the morning skate on Tuesday and were game-time decisions.

Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said all three are day to day.

Roope Hintz scored, and Casey DeSmith made 22 saves for the Stars (27-11-9), who were coming off a 3-1 win at the Los Angeles Kings on Monday.

"We had a hard, hard game last night," Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said. "Tonight, they were desperate. You could see that it was going to be a hard game. We have to be ready for those moments, right, because every team in the League right now is desperate for points."

The Stars played without one of their top defensemen, Miro Heiskanen, who missed his first game of the season because of a personal matter.

"We're hoping it will be short-term," Gulutzan said. "This is the first time we played without him this year, so you could feel it. You could feel that he wasn't in the lineup."

Shots were 2-2 at the halfway point of a scoreless first period before Anaheim finished with a 12-7 edge.

"They also had some guys missing, so it was a desperate team," Dallas defenseman Alexander Petrovic said of the first period. "They were all over us."

The Stars took their timeout at 2:27 of the second period before starting a 17-second 5-on-3, but four seconds into the two-man advantage, Jason Robertson was called for hooking.

Both teams were skating 4-on-4 when Dallas was called for another penalty while Anaheim had possession of the puck. Dostal left the ice for an extra skater and Kreider gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead at 3:36 after coming on, receiving a pass from Mikael Granlund and scoring with a snap shot from above the right hash marks.

Sennecke extended it to 2-0 at 12:03 of the third period when he retrieved a loose puck behind the Dallas net, pulled it out front and scored with a backhand while falling down to the ice.

"One of the things they've got me focused on is getting my nose over the blue paint, so I'm just trying to go out there and do that," Sennecke said.

Hintz cut it to 2-1 at 17:48 with DeSmith pulled for the extra skater, scoring on a one-timer from the inside edge of the right circle.

"Casey kept us in the game for so long," Hintz said. "In the third, we finally started to create some chances and grind them down low, but that was the biggest thing, we started so late."

Trouba then scored into an empty net with 21 seconds left for the 3-1 final.

"There's no wiggle room in this league right now," Gulutzan said. "We have to keep grinding out points, and it is a grind to get points. You talk to anybody in the League. It's tough night in and night out. There's lots of parity. We've got to get going here a little bit."

NOTES: Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe extended his assist streak to five games (six assists) on Trouba's goal. ... Sennecke's first game-winning NHL goal was his 15th of the season, moving him past Ryan Getzlaf (14 in 2005-06) for the eighth-most goals in a season by an Anaheim rookie. Bobby Ryan (31 goals in 2008-2009) ranks first.