Raymond Sawada scored his first NHL goal on his 24th birthday, and Fabian Brunnstrom had a goal and an assist to lead the Dallas Stars past the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2 Thursday night.
Sawada, recalled from the minors earlier in the day, gave the Stars a 2-0 lead in his first career game. After Edmonton rallied to tie it in the second, Brunnstrom's goal gave the Stars the lead for good.
The Stars, who have won 10 of 13, were playing their first game since losing No. 2 scorer Brad Richards to a fractured wrist. Richards, who had been among the team's best players after starting the season slowly, will be sidelined for as long as eight weeks after sustaining the injury Monday night in a shootout victory at Columbus.
Dallas' Marty Turco, who had 21 saves, started his 28th straight game to extend a club record. Krys Barch and Jere Lehtinen chipped in with goals for Dallas.
Liam Reddox and Shawn Horcoff had goals, and Dwayne Roloson stopped 21 shots for the Oilers, who along with Dallas are jockeying for a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
At 1:51 of the second, Ethan Moreau was called for roughing and tripping penalties to give the Stars a four-minute power play.
The Stars capitalized just over a minute later when Brunnstrom took a pass from Loui Eriksson and beat Roloson from the right circle to give the Stars a 3-2 lead.
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Dallas, seventh in the West with 65 points, won the opener of a six-game homestand that lasts until March 1.
Sawada had five goals in 48 games for Manitoba of the American Hockey League this season before his promotion to help fill-in for Richards.
After Barch scored to put the Stars on top 1-0, Sawada flipped a backhanded shot that got past Roloson at 16:36 of the first.
The Oilers responded with their first goal 24 seconds later when Liam Reddox tipped in a rebound. Edmonton tied it 47 seconds into the second on Horcoff's goal.
Edmonton is eighth in the West, three points behind Dallas.
After Brunnstrom's go-ahead goal, the Stars built on their lead when Lehtinen scored at 8:17 of the third. Notes:@ Turco improved to 17-6 lifetime against Edmonton. ...The Oilers were without RW Fernando Pisani (ankle), D Lubomir Visnovsky (shoulder) and D Denis Grebeshkov (ankle). ... Edmonton has not won a season series against the Stars since they moved to Dallas in 1993. This was the final matchup between the teams this season and they split four games. ... Five players from both teams were called for 51 penalty minutes, including three 10-minute misconducts, during one incident near the Edmonton net with 5:07 left in the game.
