DALLAS _ The Carolina Hurricanes are improving, but they still can't seem to figure out the Stars.
Dallas built a four-goal lead and then held on for a 4-3 victory over Carolina Saturday to run their win streak against the Hurricanes to six games.
It was an important moment for the Stars, as they posted their first four-game winning streak in more than a year and also pushed their record to 5-3-0. Maybe it was destined in the cards, as Stars goalie Ben Bishop moved his career record against Carolina to 8-1-1 and Stars captain Jamie Benn now has 18 points (eight goals, 10 assists) in 14 career games against the Hurricanes.
It was another nice step for the Stars in their attempted reboot with new/old coach Ken Hitchcock. Coming off an uneven 5-4 win over Arizona Thursday, Hitchcock made a couple of tweaks to his defense, and then watched as the Stars played a smarter, smoother game _ at least early in the game.
The top line of Benn, Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov picked up where they left off after their line had a hand in three third period goals Thursday in the win over Arizona. Benn and Radulov floated into the offensive zone in transition and ran a nice weave, as Radulov dropped a pass for Benn, who slipped in his fourth goal of the season at 7:58 of the first period.
That gave the American Airlines Center crowd a burst of energy, and the Stars took it and built on it.
The "fourth" line of Antoine Roussel, Radek Faksa and Tyler Pitlick continues to put in good shift after good shift, and now they're getting rewarded. Faksa went hard to the net to tip a Dan Hamhuis shot in the first period, and Pitlick flew into the crease to tip in the rebound before flying Bobby Orr-style past Carolina goalie Scott Darling.
Pitlick thought his first goal in a Stars uniform was Thursday when Arizona defenseman Luke Schenn scored an "own goal." That tally was credited to Faksa, so the first "real" goal for the free-agent signee actually looks quite nice.
His second goal also wasn't too bad, either, but Roussel gets the headlines for that one. The scrappy Stars veteran raced in on the forecheck and won a puck battle against the end boards. He then tossed the puck out to Pitlick for a tap-in and a 4-0 lead.
In between, Seguin scored a beautiful goal off a long stretch pass from Esa Lindell for his sixth marker of the season.
All seemed in perfect order for the Stars as they led 4-0 and the Hurricanes seemed stunned. But Carolina's goal-scoring king Jeff Skinner scored twice and then Jordan Staal added another to make the game much more exciting than it needed to be.
Skinner scored off his own rebound with 9.9 seconds left in the second period and that opened the door a crack for the Hurricanes. He then scored on a rebound in the third period where Bishop felt his glove was interfered with.
Dallas challenged, lost the challenge, and lost their timeout.
Then, Carolina started dominating play, and once again Bishop got tangled. This time, Hamhuis got caught up with Bishop and pulled him out of the net, allowing Staal to easily dump a shot into an open cage to make it 4-3.
But Bishop stood up strong against 39 shots and the Stars held on, as Carolina fell to 3-2-1.
