Blues' 11-game winning streak ends against Stars

DALLAS --The St. Louis Blues lost for the first time in 12 games, 5-2 to the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Thursday.

Ryan O'Reilly had a goal and an assist, Vladimir Tarasenko scored, and Jordan Binnington made 20 saves for the Blues (32-23-5), whose 11-game winning streak was the longest in their history. St. Louis leads Dallas by four points for third place in the Central Division.
"It wasn't horrible like we didn't do anything right," O'Reilly said. "It just wasn't the way we've been playing as of late."
WATCH: [All Blues vs. Stars highlights]
Jamie Benn scored two goals, Radek Faksa and Tyler Seguin each had a goal and an assist, and Anton Khudobin made 43 saves for the Stars (30-25-5), who had lost three straight and five of their past six. Dallas holds the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference, three points ahead of the Minnesota Wild.
"A win is two points, and that's all we really care about," Benn said. "It's nice, obviously, to win the hockey game. We haven't been playing bad hockey, just not going our way. We found a way tonight."
Benn gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 3:46 of the second period, receiving a cross-ice pass from Miro Heiskanen at the left post that went through the legs of Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo.

It was the first time St. Louis trailed in a game since Feb. 5 (517:28).
Faksa scored on a spinning backhand in front after Esa Lindell's initial shot was blocked to make it 2-0 at 8:53. The goal was Faksa's 100th point in the NHL.
Alexander Radulov extended the lead to 3-0 at 9:58 when his wrist shot from the right circle went through the legs of Blues defenseman Joel Edmundson and beat Binnington short side.
"He deserves better from us," Pietrangelo said of Binnington. "All goals that were going in, it's just loose coverage."

Tarasenko cut it to 3-1 at 12:57 with a one-timer at the top of the crease off a pass from O'Reilly three seconds into a power play, but Benn scored his second to make it 4-1 with a redirection of Lindell's point shot at 15:56.
"[Benn's] one of the best players in the NHL," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said. "We really know he's on his game when he's playing physical. All of the team feeds off of that. He's our emotional leader. He definitely led by example tonight."
O'Reilly scored on a rebound in the crease off a shot by Jay Bouwmeester to cut it to 4-2 at 19:37.

Seguin scored an empty-net goal at 19:16 of the third period for the 5-2 final.
"I thought the first period the Blues were playing at a level of intensity that we hadn't seen, playoff intensity," Montgomery said. "You see why they've been so successful. After the first period, I thought we raised our level."

They said it

"I don't think anyone came into this game taking it lightly at all. Dallas played hard and capitalized on some of their chances." -- Blues coach Craig Berube
"The streak is over. We've got to reinvent ourselves every game and establish our game again." -- Blues forward Ryan O'Reilly
"[Anton Khudobin] stood on his head, and we got some timely goals." -- Stars forward Blake Comeau

Need to know

Tarasenko has 23 points (12 goals, 11 assists) in his past 14 games. … Seguin has 12 points (eight goals, four assists) in his past 10 games. … Stars goalie Ben Bishop was the backup to Khudobin after missing the previous six games with an upper-body injury. He is expected to start against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday. … Binnington lost for the first time in 10 starts. … It was the second multigoal game of the season for Benn, who has 21 goals. It is the ninth time he has scored at least 20 goals in his 10 seasons in the NHL.

What's next

Blues:Host the Boston Bruins on Saturday (4 p.m. ET; NHLN, FS-MW, NESN, NHL.TV)
Stars:Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday (5 p.m. ET; FS-SW, FS-CR, NHL.TV)