5 things to know: Seguin's three-point night helps Stars past Blues

Tyler Seguin tallied two goals and one assist and Ben Bishop stopped 26 shots as the Dallas Stars defeated the St. Louis Blues, 3-1, at Enterprise Center on Tuesday night.
John Klingberg recorded one goal and one assist and Alexander Radulov recorded two assists for the Stars, who are 5-1-1 since the holiday break. The Stars (23-17-4) moved into third place in the Central Division.
Here are five things from Tuesday's game.

1. Stars build three-goal lead, hang on in third

Tuesday's 3-1 win over the Blues was a bit of an up-and-down affair for the Stars. They got into early penalty trouble and put the Blues on two early power plays, but the penalty kill was sharp and kept St. Louis from taking an early lead. Despite being on their heels early and not generating much, they grabbed a 1-0 lead when Radulov and Klingberg combined to set up Seguin, who scored from close range.
The Blues got into penalty trouble early in the second, putting the Stars on a five-on-three power play and the Stars made them pay when Klingberg scored to make it a 2-0 game. Then Blues goalie Jake Allen let in a soft goal to Seguin, and it was 3-0.
After that, the Blues pushed back and got a goal from David Perron to make it a 3-1 game.
In the third period it was all Blues, who outshot the Stars 12-2 and had a 22-6 advantage in shot attempts. Bishop came up huge and turned in a superb performance, making stops on Brayden Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko. The save of the game belonged to Stars defenseman Esa Lindell, who made a great block on Blues forward Ivan Barbashev as he took a shot at an open net with just over eight minutes left. Bishop made another nice save on Tarasenko, a nifty one with his glove. And then, late in the game, with the Blues net empty, Bishop just got a piece of a Tarasenko shot that hit the post with 1:55 left.
Stars coach Jim Montgomery liked parts of the game Tuesday. The third period was not one of them.
"In the first period, the two penalties got us on our heels, but I thought the last ten minutes of the first was pretty good for us. Second period was good. The power play came through. And the third period wasn't good enough," Montgomery said.
This was the second time in less than a week Montgomery was unhappy with his team's play in the third period. On Friday, they were outshot 14-2 in the third by Washington in a 1-1 game, but the Stars pulled out two points by winning in overtime.
"Whether we've lost or we've won, our third periods, we don't come out and take games. We hope to win; we don't play to win," Montgomery said. "We've just got to get tougher, physically and mentally, so that we can make the right plays. (The Blues) are on a back-to-back. We shouldn't give up more than three scoring chances. We gave up like 12."

2. Stars win special teams battle

Special teams play tilted the Stars' way Tuesday.
The penalty kill came up huge early in the game, stopping the two early St. Louis Blues power plays to keep the Blues from grabbing the early lead. The Stars are 27-32 (84.4 percent) on the PK over the last 11 games.
The power play is on a roll, scoring for the sixth straight game when it cashed in on the 5-on-3 chance early in the second period. The Stars scored on a 5-on-3 for the first time this season. The Stars are 6-for-15 (40.0 percent) on the power play during the six-game run.
"The power play is something we thought we needed to take to a new level," said Seguin. "We're growing with it every game, getting better every game. We want to keep that up."
"We're building on something there," said Klingberg. "We can do some stuff better, too, but I think we are finding each other right now and building confidence on special teams."
The Stars rank in the top 10 now on both the power play and the penalty kill. The penalty kill is eighth at 82.8 percent, and the power play has climbed up to ninth at 22.1 percent.

3. Seguin, Radulov continue to roll

The points are coming for Seguin and Radulov. Seguin extended his points streak to six games and has 10 points (six goals, four assists) during that stretch. Seguin, who took heat from the Stars front office for his lack of production in late December, has scored six goals in the last four games.
"I don't even want to talk about it. You call it puck luck, crossbars, all that stuff, it's part of the game," Seguin said. "I knew things were going to start going in and I didn't know when. I wanted to keep shooting. Right now, they're going in."
Seguin has recorded two-goal games in three of the last four contests -- all wins for the Stars. Seguin now has 17 goals on the season, tied for the team lead with Jamie Benn.
"He's finishing," Montgomery said. "It's good to get him on a roll because scoring's been a problem for us and he's our best natural scorer."
Radulov's two assists Tuesday pushed his points streak to four games and gave him 10 points (three goals, seven assists) over the past six games. Radulov has 39 points (14 goals, 25 assists) and ranks second on the team in scoring to Seguin, who has 42 points (17 goals, 25 assists).

4. Rough start for Carrick in return

Connor Carrick was back in the lineup for only his second game since coming off injured reserve for a broken foot that sidelined him for 29 games. He got off to a rough start Tuesday, taking two penalties -- high sticking and holding minors -- in the first five and a half minutes of the game. Carrick ended up playing 6:47 in Tuesday's game and saw only two shifts in the third period.
Carrick came off IR on Dec. 28 and played in the Dec. 31 game vs. Montreal, but he looked rusty and saw limited ice time. He sat out the next three games to get up to speed and work on his conditioning before getting into Tuesday's game in St. Louis.

5. Stars earn first win in St. Louis since 2015

The Stars snapped a seven-game losing streak in St. Louis and won for the first time there in the regular season since February 2015. ... The Blues outshot the Stars 27-17. ... The 17 shots on goal tied a season-low for the Stars, who also had 17 shots on goal in a 2-1 loss at the Rangers on Nov. 19. ... The Stars were 1-for-2 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. ... Dallas won 30 of 50 faceoffs (60 percent). Jason Spezza won 13 of 16 draws (81 percent). ... The Stars blocked 23 shots. Jamie Benn was tops with four blocks. ... Esa Lindell led the Stars with 27:05 of ice time. Roman Polak was next with 25:12.
Here is the lineup the Stars used to start the game along with scratches and injuries.
Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Alexander Radulov
Valeri Nichushkin - Radek Faksa - Tyler Pitlick
Devin Shore - Jason Spezza - Erik Condra
Mattias Janmark - Roope Hintz - Blake Comeau
Esa Lindell - John Klingberg
Miro Heiskanen - Roman Polak
Connor Carrick - Taylor Fedun
Ben Bishop
Anton Khudobin
Scratched:Julius Honka, Brett Ritchie
Injured: Jason Dickinson (back), Martin Hanzal (back), Marc Methot (knee), Stephen Johns (post-traumatic headaches)

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mark Stepneski has covered the Stars for DallasStars.com since 2012. Follow him on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.