Dallas

Jamie Benn's PP Goal Breaks Tie, Stars Beat Jets 6-3

For Jamie Benn this season, power-play goals are coming easily.

Benn's fifth man-advantage score broke a tie in the third period to lift the Dallas Stars over the Winnipeg Jets 6-3 on Thursday night.

Following Tyler Seguin's one-timer from the left faceoff circle, Benn gathered the rebound and tucked a wrist shot past Ondrej Pavelec with 5:55 left.

"Just a lot of good work by the other four guys," Benn said. "I pretty much stand in front and tap them in."

Antoine Roussel and Vernon Fiddler added empty-net goals. Ales Hemsky had a goal and two assists, John Klingberg and Colton Sceviour had a goal and an assist and Seguin and Johnny Oduya each had two assists for the Stars.

Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen made 35 saves, including on 32 of Winnipeg's last 33 shots, for his fourth consecutive win. Pavelec had 28 saves.

Tyler Myers' first goal this season had tied the game 3-3 at 9:17 of the third.

On Tuesday, the Stars lost 3-2 to Toronto after leading 2-1 early in the third. They appeared headed for a repeat performance until Benn scored.

Dallas killed a 4-minute power play midway through the third.

"When your power play's on, there's a certain quickness to it, the way pucks get to the net, the traffic that you get in front of the net," Jets coach Paul Maurice said. "We didn't have a whole lot of that going on. It turns on the power plays."

The Stars went on their own power play and Benn scored his 11th goal of the season. Dallas was 2 for 4 on its power plays, while Winnipeg was 0 for 4.

"I liked the way we killed that penalty and got the job done," Benn said. "(Lehtonen) hung in on the penalty kill. But the whole game he made pretty good saves at key times."

The biggest save was on a penalty kill midway through the second period with Dallas leading 3-2.

"He made that one leg save off a redirection that was more of the spectacular-type save," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "He gave us three or four really good saves when we needed them."

Lehtonen recovered from a shaky start.

Blake Wheeler and Jacob Trouba scored 18 seconds apart in the first period to give the Jets a 2-1 lead.

Wheeler's shot from low in the left faceoff circle beat Lehtonen inside the near goal post. Trouba wristed in the puck from in front of the net with the goalie out of position.

Sceviour's first goal of the season tied the score at 2 at 12:38 of the first.

The Stars took a 3-2 lead on Hemsky's breakaway at 3:50 of the second period.

"I just take off, and Jordie (Benn) made a great pass and I got a breakaway," Hemsky said. "I know (Pavelec) from Czech, so I knew right away I was shooting 5-hole. And it went in."

With Lehtonen out of the net on a power play 9 minutes into the first period, defenseman Jason Demers blocked Andrew Ladd's shot with his leg near the net.

NOTES

NFL Hall of Famer Tim Brown, a Dallas native, dropped the ceremonial first puck. ... Wheeler has 16 points (5 goals, 11 assists) in 13 games against the Stars. ... Dallas is 1-1 vs. Central Division opponents after struggling at 8-14-7 against them last season. .... Klingberg's 17 points (3 goals, 14 assists) are the most for any NHL defenseman. The Stars' D-men as a group also lead the league. ... Winnipeg's Trouba and Adam Lowry, who assisted on Trouba's goal, ended streaks of eight games without a point. ... A puck hit Dallas rookie C Radek Faksa in the face during warmups. "Just sewed him up, and ready to go," Ruff said. Faksa won 9 of 12 faceoffs (75 percent), and the Stars won 38 of 60 (63 percent).

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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