Neal's Rebound Goal Gives Stars a Win
Updated 11:00 PM CST, Wed, Oct 28, 2009
James Neal scored with 2:03 left in overtime to give the Dallas Stars a 4-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night.
Toronto rookie Jonas Gustavsson stopped Stephane Robidas' shot from long range, but Neal skated hard to the net to knock in the rebound for his first career overtime goal.
Brad Richards scored twice, Mike Ribeiro added a goal, and Marty Turco made 33 saves for the Stars. Nikolai Kulemin had two goals, Lee Stempniak struck on the power play, and Jason Blake had three assists for Toronto.
The Maple Leafs lost their first eight games before beating Anaheim 6-3 on the road Monday night, but Toronto was unable to string together a second straight win.
The Stars had lost three shootouts and once in overtime this season before earning the extra point against the Maple Leafs.
With the game tied at 2, Turco failed to control the rebound of Blake's shot, and Kulemin fired the loose puck under Turco at 13:11 of the third period.
But Ribeiro's deflection of Jamie Benn's shot with 2:45 left tied it at 3.
The Stars took advantage of a 5-on-3 to grab a 2-1 lead when Richards fired a one-timer from the left circle past Gustavsson at 1:52 of the final period.
Toronto converted on the power play at 7:42 of the third period to tie it at 2 on Stempniak's one-timer from the left circle.
The Stars broke up a scoreless game at 15:13 of the second period, capitalizing on a fortunate bounce when Richards banked in a sharp-angled shot off the skate of Maple Leafs defenseman Ian White. Toronto tied it at 1 at 17:00 of the second when Kulemin stuffed the rebound of his own shot past Turco.
NOTES: Dallas' Marc Crawford will coach his 1,000th NHL game Friday night against Florida, becoming the 15th to do so in league history. Scotty Bowman is the leader with 2,141 games over 30 seasons for five teams. ... The Stars were among the teams in the running to sign Gustavsson, a Swedish free agent, in the offseason. ... Stars C Steve Ott served the first game of a two-game suspension for a low hit on St. Louis' Carlo Colaiacovo on Saturday night. ... Toronto is without Ds Mike Van Ryn (knee) and Jamie Heward (concussion).
Copyright Associated Press
First Published: Oct 28, 2009 10:52 PM CST
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