Khudobin brilliant as Stars stave off late flurry to edge Leafs

Make it two straight wins on the road for the Dallas Stars, thanks to Anton Khudobin.
The Stars goaltender was brilliant in net Thursday night, stopping 31 of 32 shots as the Stars defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1, at Scotiabank Arena.
"I felt confidence right away," Khudobin said. "I felt the puck. I saw the puck. It was good."

Khudobin, making his third start of the season, had several big saves in the game including a great stop on Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner with seven seconds remaining as Toronto was pressing for the game-tying goal.
"He was great. That last save," said Stars forward Tyler Seguin. "He was awesome."
Khudobin's 30-save effort came on the heels of Ben Bishop's 34-save gem in the Stars' 4-1 win at Montreal Tuesday.

"We have tons of confidence in Anton," said Stars coach Jim Montgomery. "This was planned out who was going to start what games. After Bish plays a great game like that in Montreal sometimes you want to switch, but we believe in him, and he rewarded us."
Jamie Benn and Devin Shore scored the goals, and Seguin chipped in two assists for the Stars who have won consecutive road games for the first time since the team won three straight away from home Jan. 20 - Feb. 8 of last season. The Stars (7-5-0) also snapped a six-game losing streak in Toronto, winning there for the first time since Dec. 23, 2008.
"We're seeing what it's like to win on the road again, and it's fun," Seguin said. "We want to keep going."
The Maple Leafs (8-5-0) lost for the fourth time in the past six games and have scored just ten goals during that stretch.
"It is what it is, a little adversity for our group," said Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock. "Dig in. That's it. You go through it at times every year, just dig in and find a way to win a game. That's it."
There was no scoring in the first period. The Maple Leafs had a 10-7 shots advantage, had the only power play and came close to scoring but a John Tavares shot from the left circle hit the elbow of the goal and bounced out.

The Stars went on their first power play midway through the second period, and just two seconds after it expired, Benn deflected a Tyler Seguin shot into the net to put Dallas up 1-0 at the 11:55 mark.
The Stars went on another power play less than a minute later, and Khudobin came up big, stopping a point-blank shorthanded bid by Marner to keep Dallas in the lead.
The Stars killed off a Toronto power play early in the third with Khudobin making a sharp stop on a quality look from Toronto forward Andreas Johnsson.
The Stars then extended the lead to 2-0 on a slick tic-tac-toe play that went from Seguin to Mattias Janmark to Shore, who tapped the puck in from close range at the 4:43 mark.
Dallas then thwarted another Toronto power play, and Khudobin turned away five shots including a great chance from Nazem Kadri. Midway through the period, Patrick Marleau rang a shot off the post after Khudobin got a piece of it. The Leafs got their fifth power play of the game with 3:31 remaining, pulled goaltender Frederik Andersen to make it a 6-on-4 advantage and Patrick Marleau scored from close range to cut the Dallas lead to 2-1 with 3:09 remaining.
The Maple Leafs pulled Andersen again for a 6-on-5 advantage with a little more than two minutes remaining, had some good pressure and Khudobin came up with one more big stop, turning away the great look from the slot by Marner to preserve the victory.

Turning point

Feel free to pick your Anton Khudobin save of the night. There were plenty of big ones. In a tight game, they are all big, but the Dallas netminder had some great ones. Whether it was stopping John Tavares early in the second, the stop on Mitchell Marner's shorthanded chance in the second, the saves on Andreas Johnsson and Nazem Kadri on Toronto power plays in the third or, if you prefer, just fast forward to the end when he stopped Marner's bid from the slot with seven seconds left as the Maple Leafs were pushing to tie the game with the extra attacker. It was Khudobin's night.
"We don't win that game without his big saves," said Stars captain Jamie Benn.

Players of the game

Anton Khudobin, Dallas: Superb performance by the Dallas goaltender in stopping 30 of 31 shots, many of the saves big ones.
Tyler Seguin, Dallas: Two assists, a plus-two rating in 21:49 for the Stars center.
Patrick Marleau, Toronto:Scored Maple Leafs lone goal, had five shots on goal and nine shot attempts.

They said it

"He's such a great teammate. He brings energy every day, and he puts a smile on everyone's face. With [Ben Bishop] playing so well it's been hard to get him in as many games as we'd like, but it's great for his confidence and great for the team morale how well he played, and it showed we have two great goalies."- Stars coach Jim Montgomery on Anton Khudobin
"Our forecheck was better, our d-men's gaps were better, and you didn't see anyone get in behind us. I thought those two things were really good and the more the game went on, we were winning more one-on-one battles." - Montgomery on the team's play Thursday
"That was a good confidence win for our group. We don't need to win 5-1 or 4-1, especially on the road. Let's make it greasy, let's make it as ugly as possible and find a way to win these games by one goal." - Stars captain Jamie Benn

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Medical matters

Alexander Radulov was out of the lineup again Thursday with a lower-body injury. He has missed five of the past six games. Connor Carrick missed a second straight game with a foot injury. Stephen Johns (post-traumatic headaches) is on the trip but not ready to play and remains on injured reserve.

Stat pack

What's next

The Stars continue the road trip Saturday when they play at Washington. This will be the first of two meetings this season between the Stars and the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Stars lineup

Devin Shore - Tyler Seguin - Mattias Janmark
Jamie Benn - Jason Spezza - Valeri Nichushkin
Blake Comeau - Radek Faksa - Tyler Pitlick
Gemel Smith - Jason Dickinson - Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell - John Klingberg
Marc Methot - Miro Heiskanen
Julius Honka - Roman Polak
Anton Khudobin
Ben Bishop
Scratched:Justin DowlingInjured:Alexander Radulov (lower body), Connor Carrick (foot), Stephen Johns (post-traumatic headaches), Martin Hanzal (back)

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.