Stars score 3 unanswered, rally past Canucks

VANCOUVER -- Mikael Granlund scored his first goal in 13 games with the Dallas Stars in a 4-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Sunday.

Granlund, who was acquired from the San Jose Sharks along with defenseman Cody Ceci on Feb. 1, made it 2-1 with 26 seconds left in the second period off the rebound from a Ceci point shot.

“It was right at the end of the second period, so got the lead for the third and for me, there's been quite a bit of chances, so it was good to get one in finally,” said Granlund, who had eight assists in his first 12 games in Dallas.

Mikko Rantanen scored for the second straight game since being traded to Dallas by the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday. He also won the offensive zone face-off that led to Granlund’s goal.

“He fits. He's an easy guy to play and you can play him in a bunch of different spots,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said of Rantanen. “He's going to be a real important player for us for a long time.”

Thomas Harley and Jason Robertson also scored for the Stars (42-20-2), who bounced back from a 5-4 loss at the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday to win for the fifth time in six games. Matt Duchene and Ceci each had two assists, and Casey DeSmith made 22 saves in his first game against his former team.

“I'm only human, so it feels good to beat that team,” said DeSmith, who played in Vancouver last season before signing in Dallas as a free agent on July 1. “I got a lot of buddies on that team.”

Dallas was playing without top center Roope Hintz after he was hit in the face by a deflected puck in Edmonton. Hintz flew back to Dallas on Sunday and is day to day, DeBoer said before the game.

“It was a good response game for us,” DeBoer said. “Back-to-back with obviously no Roope Hintz after last night, I thought we came in and played the type of road game we needed to. We defended hard, we took care of the puck, we were opportunistic when we needed to be. … It was a pretty solid road effort.”

Derek Forbort scored his first goal in more than two years, and Kevin Lankinen made 15 saves for the Canucks (29-23-11), who had won two straight.

“I liked our compete,” Forbort said. “Just a couple mental mistakes to give them goals and we just don't really have the firepower to give up those kind of mistakes right now. And it kind of bit us.”

Harley put the Stars ahead 1-0 at 5:17 of the second period. He sent a wrist shot into traffic from outside the right face-off circle that hit Canucks defenseman Marcus Pettersson while he battled Dallas forward Mavrik Bourque atop the crease. Lankinen kicked the rebound in with his left skate as he pushed to make a save.

“You can always go back and see if it was bad luck or not,” Lankinen said. “But I think at the end of the day, you’ve got to earn your luck.”

Forbort tied it 1-1 at 11:35, taking a cross-ice pass from Conor Garland inside the right face-off circle and shooting over DeSmith’s blocker for his first goal in 83 games dating back to Feb. 16, 2023.

Granlund put the Stars ahead 2-1 after Rantanen won an offensive zone face-off and Duchene passed across to Ceci for an open point shot.

“I got kicked out, so Mikko came in, and he's a good face-off guy,” Duchene said. “Ceci took a smart shot, he didn't throw it in the glove if we didn't have a screen. He hit the blocker, bounces to 'Granny' and open net. 'Granny' got robbed early in the period, so it's funny how things work out sometimes when you do things the right way.”

Robertson redirected a Duchene pass off the rush to make it 3-1 at 8:26 of the third period. The goal extended his point streak to eight games (eight goals, seven assists).

“We're not team that gives up two goal leads too often because of the way we play without the puck,” Duchene said.

Rantanen scored into an empty net with 1:08 left, his third point in two games with Dallas, for the 4-1 final.

The Canucks have scored 17 goals while going 3-5-0 since the 4-Nations Face-Off break. They currently sit one point behind the Calgary Flames for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

“We're in the thick of the race. We need some desperation,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “You’ve got to feel comfortable in tight games. The good teams have a comfort level, but you need a cushion, you need some goals. We’ve got to score some goals, right? We had some opportunities, but maybe not enough, right?”

NOTES: Duchene has four assists during a three-game point streak. … Stars forward Wyatt Johnston, who signed a five-year, $42 million contract extension Saturday, had his point streak end at nine games (nine goals, six assists). … Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes missed a third straight game with a lower-body injury.