VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ Usually a trip to Rogers Arena is an invigorating experience for the Stars.
Dallas took a 4-2 win Thursday and is now 12-0-1 in its past 13 meetings with the Vancouver Canucks.
But the journey was not without some bad news.
Stars captain Jamie Benn suffered an upper-body injury after a hit and fight with mountainous Canucks defenseman Nikita Tryamkin (6-7, 265) and did not play in the third period. Defenseman John Klingberg took a puck off the inside of his right leg. He left and returned to play, and ended up assisting on the game-winning goal from Tyler Seguin.
With the Stars heading to Calgary for a game on Friday, they are getting a bit thin. Ales Hemsky and Patrick Sharp are each playing through lower-body injuries. Benn certainly has to be considered questionable for the Flames game. Klingberg will likely be sore after a night of sleep.
Still, Dallas has to push forward with 12 games remaining in the season.
The game was both meaningless and crucial for each team. Both the Stars and Canucks are nearing mathematical elimination from the playoffs, but both are also playing a ton of kids and hoping to see what the future holds. Remi Elie, 21, tallied an assist and now has three points in six NHL games. Esa Lindell, 22, stepped up in the absence of Klingberg and played 22:44. He tallied his sixth goal in 61 games and finished plus-3.
At the very least, the Stars spit out the bitter taste of Tuesday's 7-1 loss at Edmonton.
Dallas had better structure, better goaltending, and simply played a smarter game. Now, that would seem easier against a Vancouver team that was 0-2-2 in its previous four games, but simply putting out a respectable performance was significant accomplishment for a Stars team that was reeling.
Dallas got the first goal this time, as Elie put a puck in a good area on the forecheck, and Hemsky raced in and forced some puck mismanagement by the Canucks. Goalie Ryan Miller came out and couldn't control the puck, and Hemsky pushed in his first goal of the season.
Hemsky missed most of the year after hip surgery, but he's trying to show he can be an option for next season, and he continues to look good in his eighth game.
Vancouver battled back and scored on a Sven Baertschi rebound, but Dallas again came up with a hectic shift that resulted in a goal. After a scramble behind the Vancouver goal, the puck squirted out to Klingberg, who sent it over to Lindell, who shot through a stunned Miller with 7.9 seconds left in the first period.
That proved a huge moment for Dallas until the Canucks beat them by six seconds. With Dallas killing a penalty late in the second period, Ben Hutton made a nice play to slip a backhand past Lehtonen with 1.9 seconds remaining. That tied the score at 2-2 and forced an exciting third period.
Dallas got its chance with the power play and didn't squander it. The Stars have not been able to capitalize with the man advantage late in games, one reason it sits 28-32-10 (66 points). But the power play was near flawless, as Klingberg set up Seguin for a one-timer, and Seguin blasted in his 24th goal of the season.
Radek Faksa added an insurance goal and Lehtonen finished with 26 saves to get his 17th win of the season. It was a nice breath of fresh air in a building that usually rejuvenates the Stars.
"There's so many games left and the teams we're playing, most of them are playing their best hockey of the year, they're playing their hardest hockey of the year," Lehtonen said. "So we have to get up to that level, we have to be able to play hard against those teams. They're fighting for a playoff spot or home ice and they really don't care about our problems."
Players say team responsible for bad goaltending numbers: The Stars are on pace to have the worst goaltending numbers in the NHL this season, but players and coaches say those stats have been earned by the entire team.
While Dallas sat 30th in goals against average at 3.29 and 30th in save percentage at .892 heading into Thursday's game at Vancouver, Lehtonen and Antti Niemi have maybe faced higher percentage scoring chances than any other goalies in the league.
"It goes a lot deeper," said Stars captain Jamie Benn. "They're an easy target to pick on, because if you see the Dallas Stars are giving up 5, 6, 7 goals a night, everybody points a finger at the goalies first. But it's 18 other guys playing in front of them, and it's on all of us."
