Lehtonen earns 300th win as Stars top Islanders, 5-2

Dallas Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen hit some milestones Wednesday night, and he hit them in impressive fashion. Lehtonen turned in a sparkling 32-save effort for his 300th career NHL win as the Stars defeated the New York Islanders, 5-2, at Barclays Center.

WATCH: [All Stars vs. Islanders highlights]
"That was fun. It was nice to get it with the first try," said Lehtonen.
Lehtonen, who is in a backup role this season, won his 299th game with a sharp outing Monday in a 2-1 shootout win over the New York Rangers and earned another start against the Islanders.
"It's nice to play two games in a row and get good results," Lehtonen said. "That's something that makes me believe in what I am doing and how I am practicing and all that good stuff."
The 300th win came in Lehtonen's 624th NHL game, which moved him ahead of Miikka Kiprusoff for the most games played by a Finnish goaltender.

"It's a huge moment for him, but he was good tonight," said Stars coach Ken Hitchcock. "He had to earn it tonight. He had to work."
Lehtonen was particularly sharp in the first period when he made 15 saves, including some high-end ones as the Stars were holding a 1-0 lead in the game.
"It's pretty special to see him reach 300 wins, that's pretty spectacular for a goaltender," said Stars captain Jamie Benn. "He was the player of the game, and we let him know that after the game."
Tyler Pitlick scored two goals for the Stars, and Alexander Radulov, Remi Elie, and Benn also scored as the Stars (18-3-1) improved to 2-0-0 on their current road trip and won for the fifth time in their last six games away from home.
"It was the same thing we did against the Rangers. We pressured the puck hard on the forecheck, played a strong territorial start," Hitchcock said. "The first two periods were excellent. We got soft on the puck in the third, and the Islanders started to come at us, but the first two periods - and even the first shift in the third period - we played really well."

The Islanders lost for the fourth time in the last five games and fell to 17-11-3 on the season. Wednesday's loss was just their second in regulation at home (9-2-2).
"Some things didn't go our way, but I don't think we helped ourselves in the first half of the game," said Islanders captain John Tavares. "We seemed sluggish, seemed to fight the puck a little bit and didn't move quick enough. It didn't allow us to establish our forecheck."
The Stars controlled play early in the first period and took a 1-0 lead at the 7:41 mark. Dan Hamhuis' shot from the left point hit traffic and Pitlick scored on the rebound off the end boards.
The Islanders pushed back after the goal and Lehtonen came up with big stops to keep it a 1-0 game. He made a save on a Jordan Eberle shot from the slot, stopped a Johnny Boychuk blast from the point and then made a great pad stop on a point-blank redirection by Tavares.
A little more than a minute after the save on Tavares, Jason Spezza set up Radulov, whose shot from the right circle on the rush trickled through Islanders goaltender Jaroslav Halak to make it 2-0 at 15:46 of the first period.

The Stars extended the lead to 3-0 early in the second period. During a delayed penalty call, Devin Shore put a shot on net from the right circle and Elie, who drew the penalty, scored on the rebound at the 1:01 mark.
The Stars made it a 4-0 game at the 9:21 mark when Julius Honka set up Benn on the rush and the Dallas captain snapped the puck past Halak from the left wing. That ended the night for Halak, who was replaced by Thomas Greiss.
The Islanders came close to cutting into the lead later in the second. Josh Bailey hit the post with the Islanders on the power play, and Casey Cizikas hit the post on a redirection.
The Stars pushed the lead to 5-0 just 21 seconds into the third when Pitlick deflected a John Klingberg shot into the net.
Anders Lee scored twice for the Islanders in the third, tallying on a rebound at even strength 1:06 in the period and then scoring on a rebound with the Islanders on the power play at 16:28 after Lehtonen made a spectacular stop on Tavares.

Radulov leaves game with injury

Stars forward Alexander Radulov left Wednesday's game midway through the third period with a lower-body injury and did not return. The Stars didn't give any specifics about the injury, but Radulov took a stick to the lower-leg/foot area with about 12 minutes left in the game, hobbled to the bench and then played only one more shift the rest of the night.
"We took him out for precautionary (reasons)," Hitchcock said. "We're not really sure what it is right now. We'll get a better evaluation in the morning."

Notes

What's Next

The Stars continue their road trip when they take on the New Jersey Devils on Friday. It will be the Stars' first look of the season at the Devils, who have been one of the league's first-half surprises. New Jersey is 17-9-4 and is in third place in the tough and highly-competitive Metropolitan Division. Devils leading scorer Taylor Hall was injured in Tuesday's win over Los Angeles and will miss Thursday's game in Montreal. He is listed as day-to-day.

Stars Lineup

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