Seguin Helps Stars Past Oilers 6-5 in Shootout

The first part of the second period was a disaster for Dallas. The response by Tyler Seguin and the Stars was quite impressive.

Seguin had two goals and an assist, and then scored in the shootout to help Dallas beat the lowly Edmonton Oilers 6-5 on Sunday night for their fourth consecutive win.

"It was a gutsy effort," Stars captain Jamie Benn said. "We laid an egg in the second period and we found a way to grind it out for 20 minutes and found a way to win the shootout. We have a lot of character guys in here and we really wanted to finish this road trip off with two points."

Shawn Horcoff had the winning score in the eighth round of the tiebreaker, and also collected his fifth goal in the first period. Erik Cole and Benn also scored in regulation for the Stars (14-13-5), who have won five of six.

Taylor Hall and Mark Arcobello each had two goals for the Oilers (7-20-7), who blew a 5-2 lead. Edmonton has lost seven straight and 18 of 19.

"We were sitting back on our heels a bit for the second half of the game and that can't happen," interim coach Todd Nelson said. "When you are up you have to keep forechecking hard and pressing for the puck. Those things weren't happening. We were loose on the puck."

Dallas grabbed a 2-1 lead at 10:20 of the first when Ales Hemsky's shot deflected off an Oilers defender to the stick of Cole, who sent his sixth of the season stick-side past a diving Ben Scrivens.

But the Oilers responded with four consecutive goals in the second.

Edmonton tied the game just 11 seconds into the period. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins showed some tenacity in holding off a Stars defender and sending the puck across to Teddy Purcell, who beat Kari Lehtonen for his fifth of the year.

Arcobello then scored both of his goals, chasing Lehtonen at 9:19. He had 15 saves before he was replaced by Anders Lindback.

But the Oilers kept attacking and went up 5-2 when Purcell sent Hall in on a partial breakaway and he beat Lindback through the legs for his second of the game.

The Stars' comeback started with 21 seconds remaining in the second. Jason Spezza made a cross-ice feed to Benn, who shot the puck into the top corner for a power-play goal.

Seguin then stepped up in the third. He rebounded his own shot for his 24th goal just 52 seconds into the period, and collected another rebound score with 10:47 remaining, tying it at 5.

"We all tested ourselves in the third and I think (coach) Lindy (Ruff) challenged us," Seguin said. "We've had a few games in the past where we've been down a goal or two in the third and we haven't had much of a push, but I thought we dominated the game in the third period."

The Stars outshot the Oilers 16-5 in the third, but Edmonton hung on to send the game to extra time.

Dallas had the bulk of the overtime opportunities, but Scrivens was able to push the game to a shootout. He finished with 40 saves.

"You just can't let teams come back like that," said Hall, who halted a career-high 11-game scoring drought. "You can't let them get the momentum."

NOTES: It was the second of three games between the Oilers and Stars this season, with Dallas also winning 3-2 on Nov. 25. ... The Stars came into the game with a five-game winning streak in Edmonton and having won 14 of their past 17 games against the Oilers. ... Hall hadn't scored since last month's loss to the Stars. ... Oilers rookie center Leon Draisaitl was a healthy scratch, despite not being loaned to play for Germany at the World Junior Hockey Championships. Center Anton Lander, who was recalled from Oklahoma City of the American Hockey League on Friday, took his place. ... Dallas had a couple of players return to the lineup. Defenseman Jordie Benn came back from an injury and forward Ryan Garbutt returned from a three-game suspension for slew-footing Winnipeg Jets forward Dustin Byfuglien on Dec. 9.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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