DALLAS – Tyler Seguin kept up his scoring surge for the Dallas Stars on Saturday night. This time, his teammates gave him more help.
Seguin had two goals and an assist to help Dallas beat the slumping Montreal Canadiens 4-1 Saturday night, ending the Stars’ four-game losing streak (0-3-1).
Cody Eakin and Ryan Garbutt also scored for the Stars, who had goals during a 5-on-4 power play, a 5-on-3 advantage, while skating 4-on-4 and into an empty net. Kari Lehtonen finished with 16 saves to earn his first victory since Nov. 25.
When asked what he liked about the game, Dallas head coach Lindy Ruff said, “I liked pretty well everything.
“That’s the way we need to play — a lot of smart decisions, real good puck management. You can win a lot of games playing like that.”
Seguin increased his NHL-leading goals total to 21, including seven in the last seven games. Captain Jamie Benn assisted on both of Seguin’s scores.
“It starts by your best players doing the right thing,” Ruff said. “You’ve got to give those guys the credit. They led the way.”
Seguin acknowledged Dallas’ special-teams play, which resulted in his 5 on 3 and 4 on 4 goals.
“That’s been a big talking point for our team,” he said. “A lot of teams are playing us so tight 5 on 5 that you’re going to have to win the power play or PK battles, special teams, to win the game.”
Sven Andrighetto scored for Montreal in his NHL debut and Carey Price stopped 25 shots. The Canadiens dropped to 1-5-1 in their last seven games after a 16-5-1 start to the season.
Dallas limited Montreal to 17 shots — the Stars’ season low for shots allowed — after giving up an average of 38 over the previous six games.
The Stars’ previous low for shots allowed this season was 22 against Minnesota on Nov. 15. Montreal also had only 17 shots on Oct. 13 at Tampa Bay.
“We took two bad penalties,” Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said. “Took all the momentum away, and we knew that in that situation we were facing tonight in playing a lot of hockey lately. Came to Dallas really late and we had to play a perfect road game.”
Seguin scored both his goals in the second period, the first at 3:09 and the second with 8 seconds remaining to make it 3-0. He assisted on Eakin’s power-play goal with 8:37 left in the first.
Andrighetto got the Canadiens on the scoreboard at 2:21 of the third period.
Garbutt capped the scoring with an empty-netter with 1:04 left.
It took the Canadiens 14:37 to put their first shot on Lehtonen, and they were short-handed at the time.
Dallas had taken the game’s first nine shots, scoring on their seventh. Just 6 seconds into the game’s first power play. Eakin was just at the right of the net to backhand in a rebound of Seguin’s shot.
In the second period, Seguin scored on a 5-on-3 power play, taking a cross-ice pass at the bottom of the left faceoff circle from Benn, and beating Price with a shot.
Dallas scored another quick goal in the final seconds of the period. After a coincidental minor on each team with 11 seconds remaining, Benn won the faceoff in the Montreal end, drew the puck back to the top of the right circle, and Seguin wristed a shot under Price’s right arm. The goal went in 3 seconds after the penalties put the teams in a 4-on-4 situation.
“That’s how we’re going to do it these days,” Benn said. “He’s pretty hot right now. He made a great shot.”
NOTES: Seguin has seven goals in seven games. He entered the game with 32 points, only 1 behind the league leaders. … Eakin has scored five of his six goals at home. … Dallas C Shawn Horcoff, playing in his 900th NHL game, won all four of his faceoffs in the first two periods. … Price began the night with a 2.43 goals against average and .920 save percentage this season, but with a 3.01 GAA and .895 percentage against the Stars. … Montreal D Sergei Gonchar and Stars LW Travis Moen, traded for each other on Nov. 11, played for the first time this season against their former teams.
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