Stars end slide with 2-1 shootout win over Rangers

Coming off a rough week that saw them lose three games against some of the top teams in the Western Conference, the Dallas Stars began the new week with one of their strongest games of the season in a 2-1 shootout win over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Monday night.
"It was a dig-deep game for us," Stars center Jason Spezza said. "It's no secret we got challenged after the week we had. Hopefully, it's something we can build off. We played a good game."

WATCH: [All Stars vs. Rangers highlights]
The Stars dominated the Rangers for a good portion of the game, outshooting them 45-25 and holding a 90-45 advantage in shot attempts by the end of the night. Still, it was no easy game, and it took extra playing time to get the two points because of a brilliant performance by Rangers goaltender Ondrej Pavelec.
"It would have been a shame not to get two points in this game the way we played," said Stars coach Ken Hitchcock.
Pavelec stopped 40 shots in regulation and limited the Stars to one goal, a second-period tally by Julius Honka that staked the Stars to a 1-0 lead. The Rangers tied it late in the third to force overtime and then the shootout, where the Stars prevailed.
Kari Lehtonen, who stopped 24 shots in regulation and overtime, turned away two of three New York attempts in the shootout. Alexander Radulov scored Dallas' first shootout goal, and then Spezza notched the game-winner for the Stars, who snapped the three-game losing streak and improved to 17-13-1 on the season.

"It was big," said Lehtonen. "We dominated for 50 minutes, and their goalie played lights out to keep it 1-0. We were grinding, we deserved two points, and it was good to get them."
Pavelec made 44 saves in both regulation and overtime, and Rick Nash scored the lone goal for the Rangers, who fell to 16-12-1 on the season.
"We didn't play real well tonight," said Rangers coach Alain Vigneault. "There are two positives, Pavs played unreal, and because of his performance we were able to get a point. Other than that, we weren't good."
The Stars dominated play in the first period, outshooting the Rangers 16-5, but they couldn't get a puck past Pavelec. The Rangers goaltender made several good saves including a close range stop on Brett Ritchie and back-to-back saves on point-blank bids by Remi Elie and Devin Shore. Gemel Smith also shot a puck off the crossbar from the slot.
The Stars got back-to-back power plays early in the second period, including 50 seconds of five-on-three time, but couldn't take advantage. But less than two minutes after the second power play expired, the Stars broke through.
Some good work along the boards by Radek Faksa and Jamie Benn helped get the puck to Esa Lindell at the left point and Lindell set up Honka, who scored on a blast from the top of the right circle to put the Stars up 1-0 at 6:30 of the second. It was the first point of the season for Honka in either the NHL or AHL.

"It feels good to get that goal and obviously it was good for the team too, but it helped me a lot," said Honka. "It feels good, especially in this game for the first time this year. I just want to keep going; it's exciting."
Lehtonen came up big a little more than two minutes later, making a pad save on J.T. Miller's backhand shot on a clean breakaway to keep the Stars up 1-0.
The Stars continued to dominate the rest of the second period, but Pavelec continued to stand tall to keep the Rangers within a goal. The Rangers backup netminder stopped Tyler Seguin on Dallas' third power play of the night and then denied quality looks from Shore and Benn with the two sides playing at even strength. At the end of 40 minutes, the Stars had a 33-10 advantage in shots on goal.
The Rangers pushed back in the third period, and the goaltenders traded big saves. Pavelec denied Elie on a breakaway, Lehtonen denied Nash from the slot after a turnover, Pavelec came up with a big save on Seguin.
But with 3:41 left Brady Skjei put a shot on net from the left point that deflected in the net off Nash to tie the game, 1-1. The Stars challenged for goaltender interference, but the goal stood, and the two teams went to three-on-three overtime where both Lehtonen and Pavelec continued to shine.
Radulov and Spezza scored on Pavelec in the shootout and only Mats Zuccarello could tally on Lehtonen, and the Stars had a 2-1 win to open their four-game road trip.

Notes

What's Next

The Stars continue the road trip Wednesday when they take on the New York Islanders. This will be the second and final meeting of the season between the two teams. The Stars won the first meeting, 5-0, in Dallas on Nov. 10.

Stars Lineup

Remi Elie - Tyler Seguin - Devin Shore
Mattias Janmark - Jason Spezza - Alexander Radulov
Jamie Benn - Radek Faksa - Tyler Pitlick
Gemel Smith - Jason Dickinson - Brett Ritchie
John Klingberg - Esa Lindell
Dan Hamhuis - Greg Pateryn
Stephen Johns - Julius Honka
Kari Lehtonen
Ben Bishop
Scratched:Jamie Oleksiak
Injured:Antoine Roussel (elbow), Martin Hanzal (hamstring), Marc Methot (knee)

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 Mark on Twitter at @StarsInsideEdge.