Janmark lifts Stars over Blackhawks, 4-3, in OT

The Dallas Stars are starting to find some traction on the road. Mattias Janmark scored two goals, including the game-winner in overtime, as the Stars made it two straight road wins with a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Thursday night.

WATCH: [Full Stars vs. Blackhawks highlights]
"Winning two in a row on the road is important," Janmark said. "We are finding ways to win the right way now both home and away, so this is a big win. We have a lot of division games coming up and every win in the division, especially on the road, is huge."
Janmark, who opened the scoring for the Stars Thursday, won the game 51 seconds into overtime, taking a pass from Tyler Seguin, getting by Chicago defenseman Duncan Keith and then lifting the puck over Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford from close range.
"I had a step on [Keith], and I shot it as early as I could, and then I tried to get it up high," Janmark said.
Radek Faksa and Remi Elie also scored goals, and Ben Bishop stopped 19 shots for the Stars, who won their third straight game overall, improved to 5-1-0 in their past six games, and are 14-10-1 on the season.
"I just think you build your game through adversity," said Stars coach Ken Hitchcock. "You've got to go through tough times, and you don't build it through the good times, you build it through the tough times. Like I said, I knew we were going to come to this part of our game two weeks ago because we had really good play in us."

Patrick Kane tallied one goal and one assist and Corey Crawford stopped 31 shots for the Blackhawks, who lost their second straight game and fell to 12-9-4 on the season.
"There was not much going on. We had the puck and then we'd give it away, and it's tough to get it back," said Kane. "We started buzzing a little bit in the third, and had some momentum which is good to see, but not much going on. We had 10 shots through two periods which is unacceptable."
The Stars penalty kill, which was 6-7 in the game, came up big early in the first period, killing off two Chicago power plays in the first seven minutes of the game although Chicago came close on the second one when Alex DeBrincat hit the crossbar.
The Stars grabbed a 1-0 lead at 14:46 of the first when Gemel Smith set up Janmark, who circled behind the Chicago net and scored on a wrap-around. But nine seconds later, DeBrincat scored off the rush to tie the game 1-1.
Chicago got a third power-play chance less than two minutes later, and Kane was called for hooking Faksa on a shorthanded breakaway which resulted in a penalty shot for the Dallas center. Faksa scored on the penalty shot, beating Crawford with a wrist shot to give Dallas a 2-1 lead at 17:20 of the first period.
"I think you could probably see the replay on the call on the penalty shot it looked like I just lifted his stick," Kane said. "But we had our fair share of chances on the power play, so we're not going to blame them, we should have done better on the power play, and it probably wouldn't have even went to that overtime."

The Blackhawks got a fourth power play late in the first, it carried over into the second, and they cashed in on this one to tie the game. Kane passed the puck from the right wing to Artem Anisimov, who directed the puck into the net to make it a 2-2 game at the 1:02 mark.
The Stars didn't get their first shot on goal in the second until the 12:01 mark, but they stepped up the pressure late in the period and scored to take a 3-2 lead. After a Chicago turnover in the neutral zone, Faksa set up Elie with a nice area pass, and Elie pulled Crawford out of position with a great deke and slipped the puck into the net from close range at 14:04 of the second.
The Blackhawks, who had just 10 shots through the first 40 minutes, stepped up the pressure at the start of the third period and scored at the 4:34 mark when Gustav Forsling put a shot on net from the point, and Kane deflected it past Bishop to knot the score at 3-3.
Both teams had power-play time in the third, but couldn't take advantage. Crawford came up with some big saves to keep the Stars from winning in regulation, turning away a Seguin blast from the right circle and then making two great saves on point-blank chances by Elie.
But he couldn't stop the overtime chance by Janmark, and the Stars got the second point in game one of the home-and-home series between the two teams.
"We're getting that feeling of what it is like to win big games like this," Seguin said. "Now we've got to get to go home and do it again."

Notes

What's Next

The Stars and Blackhawks play the second game of their home-and-home series Saturday in Dallas. The Stars have won four straight at home and are 9-2-0 at American Airlines Center this season. The Blackhawks are 6-5-2 on the road.

Stars Lineup

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

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 Mark on Twitter at @StarsInsideEdge.