Bishop makes 28 saves for Stars in shutout of Rangers

DALLAS -- Ben Bishop made 28 saves for the Dallas Stars in a 1-0 win against the New York Rangers at American Airlines Center on Tuesday.

John Klingberg scored for the Stars (34-27-5), who have won three straight games.
"We didn't have our best, but we found a way to win tonight," Dallas coach Jim Montgomery said. "We knew this was going to be a tough game. Our legs were better than we thought physically, but mentally we looked tired. Our decision-making, our lack of creativity was evident. But at this time of year, we dug in, we battled hard, and we found a way."
WATCH: [All Rangers vs. Stars highlights]
The Stars lead the Minnesota Wild by one point for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. They trail the St. Louis Blues by one point for third place in the Central Division.
Alexandar Georgiev made 31 saves for the Rangers (27-28-11), who have lost five in a row (0-2-3) to match their longest losing streak of the season. New York is 14 points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

"Since I've gotten here, four games, they've all been close," said Rangers forward Brendan Lemieux, who was acquired in a trade from the Winnipeg Jets on Feb. 25. "We're getting beat by a goal or just inches right now."
New York coach David Quinn said, "It just wasn't a great effort from our end of it. I shouldn't say effort, but I thought, mentally, we were not very purposeful on what we were trying accomplish."
It was Bishop's fourth shutout of the season and the 28th of his NHL career.
"The guys played well, did a good job of slowing it down," said Bishop, who has started four games in a row for the first time since he started four straight Jan. 17-Feb. 1. "We knew they wanted to play kind of that run-and-gun game, and (we) did a good job of not getting sucked into that."

Three of Bishop's four shutouts this season have been 1-0 games.
"Maybe we should start scoring less goals," Bishop said.
Klingberg scored at 1:16 of the second period when, after taking a cross-ice pass from Miro Heiskanen, his wrist shot from the right point sailed through traffic in front of the net and went in high off the far post.
"I got the puck on my tape," Klingberg said. "I saw someone screened the goalie really good. Post in -- that's nice because it's usually post out."

Georgiev said, "There was a lot of traffic in front of me, so I tried to just move into the direction the puck was going and block it. But I did not see how it went in. Just a pretty good shot, I guess."
After scoring in a 4-1 win against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, Klingberg has a goal in consecutive games for the first time since scoring in three in a row from Oct. 9-15.
Dallas dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Forward Alexander Radulov was a healthy scratch after he was late for the team meeting in the morning. The Stars were down to 10 forwards when Radek Faksa left the game at 10:07 of the third period following a hit by Mika Zibanejad, who received a major penalty for boarding and a game misconduct.
The penalty was called following a meeting between the four on-ice officials after Zibanejad had returned to the New York bench.
"The linesman called it, and he felt that he hit him in the head," Quinn said. "That was the call. That was the explanation I got."
Lemieux said, "I've never seen a game misconduct in that situation. But they're trying to protect the players, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that."
The Rangers killed 4:43 of consecutive power-play time for the Stars during the second half of the third period, including 1:37 at 5-on-3.
Mats Zuccarello, who was traded to Dallas on Feb. 23 following nine seasons with New York, would have made his home debut for the Stars. The forward has not played since breaking his right arm in his first game after being traded, at the Chicago Blackhawks on Feb. 24, when he had a goal and an assist in 13:35. His brother and stepfather attended the game, having ordered tickets minutes before Zuccarello was injured.

They said it

"We've got to put some pucks in the back of the net. Finish some games. Get some wins." -- Rangers defenseman Brady Skjei
"No one's above the team, and we found a way to win. That's the most important thing this time of year." -- Stars coach Jim Montgomery on scratching forward Alexander Radulov for arriving late to a team meeting Tuesday morning

Need to know

The Rangers were 0-for-4 on the power play and were shut out for the sixth time this season. … The seventh Dallas defenseman, Jamie Oleksiak, played 5:59. … Montgomery said Faksa passed the concussion protocol and doesn't expect him to miss any games.

What's next

Rangers: At the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-D, MSG, NHL.TV)
Stars:Host the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET; FS-SW, ALT, NHL.TV)