NHL

Stars Beat Senators 6-3 in Spezza's Return to Ottawa

Jamie Benn scored two goals, and the Stars beat the Senators 6-3 on Thursday night in Jason Spezza's first game in Ottawa since he was traded to Dallas in the offseason.

John Klingberg, Colton Sceviour, Ales Hemsky and Trevor Daley also scored for Dallas, and Kari Lehtonen made 25 saves.

Mika Zibanejad, Bobby Ryan and Alex Chiasson scored for Ottawa. Robin Lehner, making his first start since January 13th, stopped 33 shots.

Spezza made his NHL debut with Ottawa in 2002 and had spent his entire career with the Senators before the trade. The former Senators captain got a standing ovation from the crowd of 18,752 following a video tribute early in the first period.

The Stars grabbed a 4-3 lead midway through the third period when Klingberg took advantage of an Ottawa turnover to break in alone and beat Lehner with a wrist shot.

With just under a minute remaining in regulation, and Lehner on the bench, the Senators caught a break when Tyler Seguin took a hooking penalty, but a lost faceoff resulted in Daley sending a wrist shot all the way down the ice and into the empty net. Benn added a second empty-net goal to round out the scoring.

With Ottawa trailing 3-2 early in the third, Chiasson took a cross-ice pass from Kyle Turris and tapped it in for his first goal in 17 games.

The Senators got off to a rough start, and then had a much better second period, thanks to some solid goaltending from Lehner.

Lehner made huge saves on Spezza and Patrick Eaves, and got a little help when Seguin rang a shot off the goalpost. The Senators were outshot 16-8 in the second.

Benn opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 7:37 of the first. Less than a minute later Sceviour made it 2-0 when he deflected a shot in front. Hemsky made it 3-0 on the Stars' second power-play goal of the period when he beat Lehner on the glove side.

Trailing 3-0, Zibanejad got the Senators on the board when he retrieved his own rebound and jammed it in. Ryan, who has 21 points in 20 games, then had a power-play goal at 18:30 of the opening period.

NOTES: Dallas LW Erik Cole remains day to day with a lower body injury. D Jordie Benn and RW Brett Ritchie were healthy scratches.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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