Third-period rally propels Stars past Ducks, 2-1

The Dallas Stars will embark on their season-long six game road trip with a big two points in the bank.
The Stars staged another third-period rally, scoring twice on the power play to defeat the Anaheim Ducks, 2-1, at American Airlines Center on Friday night.

WATCH: [All Stars vs. Ducks highlights]
"It was a great feeling to get those two points," said Stars center Tyler Seguin, who assisted on both Dallas goals. "It's a long and pretty critical road trip coming up. Tonight, our crowd was great, especially in the third.
"We had a feeling it was going to take all night, and the guys stayed patient, and we are happy our power play came through."

Through two periods Friday Dallas couldn't crack Ducks goaltender Ryan Miller, who had shut out the Stars in Anaheim on Feb. 21. And a Ryan Getzlaf goal had the Ducks up 1-0 through 40 minutes. But the Stars power play, which had been struggling lately, took advantage of its only two opportunities in the game -- both in the third period -- against an Anaheim penalty kill, which hadn't allowed a goal in nine straight games.
The first power play, which came after Anaheim's Corey Perry was called for closing his hand on the puck, was ugly for the Stars, but with two seconds left on it, Devin Shore redirected a Seguin shot past Miller to tie the game 1-1 at 8:50 of the third.
"On the tip play, it was a great look by Seggy," said Shore. "There's a little bit of luck involved because you have your stick there and you let him hit it. I was really happy that it found the back of the net."
"We found a way, and we stuck with it," Seguin said. "That whole game was about sticking with it. That's a good hockey club over there. There's not much space."

On the second power play, Stars defenseman John Klingberg lofted the puck on net from the blue line and Jamie Benn tipped it into the net at 14:23 of the third to give Dallas a 2-1 lead that would hold up the rest of the game.
"I think we stuck with our game and found a way to draw a couple of penalties with some hard work from our guys. We found a way to take advantage," said Benn. "The main part is we stuck with our game for 60 minutes and got a big two points."
Friday was the fourth straight home game the Stars have rallied to secure either a win or at least a point in the third period. Kari Lehtonen stopped 26 of 27 shots for the Stars, who have points in five of their last six games (3-1-2) and are 38-24-6 on the season.
The Ducks (34-23-12) went 0-2-0 on a two-game road trip and have lost consecutive games in regulation for the first time since early February.

"They score two power-play goals, one to get even and the other one to win the hockey game for them," said Ducks coach Randy Carlyle. "And what did we do? We went 0-3 (on the power play) in the game. Special teams -- we lost the battle, they won the hockey game with it."
The Ducks opened the scoring late in the first period. Miller kicked out a Dan Hamhuis shot from the left wing leading to an odd-man rush the other way, and Getzlaf scored from the right circle at the 17:16 mark to put the Ducks up 1-0.
The Stars were all over the Ducks in the second period, outshooting them 17-5 but couldn't get a puck past Miller, who turned away a good bid by Brett Ritchie from the slot early in the period and then swept the puck away from the goal line after Seguin hit the crossbar late in the period.
But the Stars finally broke through in the third with the power-play goals by Shore and Benn to secure a big two points before hitting the road for six straight games.

Janmark, Methot miss game

Stars defenseman Marc Methot and Mattias Janmark both missed Friday's game. Methot was out with a knee issue, and Janmark was ill.
"Janmark was sick with the flu and Methot just was too sore. The knee injury was too sore to play today. It was okay in the morning, but it got weaker as the day went on and he just wasn't able to push," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said.
"Everybody is on the trip, and we'll sort it out from there. Ben (Bishop) is on the trip with us, and we'll see when we get back on the ice with him but right now everybody that was here will be on the trip, and obviously Janmark will hopefully join us soon."

Notes

What's Next

The Stars hit the road for six straight games starting with Pittsburgh on Sunday. They also play at Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Washington.

Stars Lineup

Devin Shore - Tyler Seguin - Alexander Radulov
Jamie Benn - Radek Faksa - Tyler Pitlick
Antoine Roussel - Jason Spezza - Brett Ritchie
Gemel Smith - Jason Dickinson - Remi Elie
Esa Lindell - John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis - Greg Pateryn
Stephen Johns - Julius Honka
Kari Lehtonen
Mike McKenna
Scratched: None
Injured:Mattias Janmark (flu), Marc Methot (knee), Ben Bishop (knee), Martin Hanzal (back)

This story was not subject to approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mark Stepneski is an independent writer whose posts on DallasStars.com reflect his own opinions and do not represent official statements from the Dallas Stars. You can follow him on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.