NHL News: Dallas Stars outclass Minnesota Wild 4-0, for seventh straight win
Jamie Benn lit the lamp twice as Dallas Stars rallied for their seventh straight road win over Minnesota Wild, 4-0, at Xcel Energy Centre, Saint Paul on Sunday.
Trevor Daley and James Neal also notched one goal each while Brad Richards had a pair of assists for Dallas, who has won three of four games overall but equalized a franchise record by posting its seventh straight road victory this season. Andrew Raycroft
made 26 saves for his second shutout of the season in the win for Stars.
Jose Theodore gave up four goals on 28 shots for Minnesota, whose four-game victory streak was halted. Wild had earlier topped Pittsburgh by the same score on Saturday. Minnesota is now 1-6-3 on the second day of consecutive contests. It fell to 10-10-2
at home, compared to 11-6-3 on the road.
Dallas opened the game's scoring first just 21 minutes in the first period. Brad Richards found a seam through the slot and threaded the pass to opposite circle where Daley tipped the puck home with a one-timer for 1-0 lead.
Dallas went to intermission up by two with 49 seconds remaining in the first period. Benn received a pass from Nicklas Grossman and went almost end to end with the puck, putting a clever move on Cam Barker to scoot around the defenseman in the left circle.
He then blasted a shot past Theodore for his side's two-goal advantage at 2-0.
The second period was spirited, and both teams were showing that they have some great defending forwards, but neither was able to score and it remained 2-0 in favour of Stars heading into the third period. Raycroft was not seriously tested in the second
period, and only saw five shots as Stars threw up a defensive blanket over Minnesota.
Dallas’ power-play was dominant in puck possession at times, but it could not send the puck into the net.
The third period favoured Minnesota who seemed to be dominant, which was very physical, but Stars then found an opening again.
Just before the midway point of the third period, Dallas got the puck up ice and got a scramble going around the net. James Neal ripped a shot at Theodore and Minnesota net minder somehow mishandled the puck and knocked it in for a 3-0 Dallas lead. It was
Neal’s 15th goal of the season so far.
Dallas struck again for a four-goal advantage on Benn’s second goal of the game. He fired a shot through the traffic in the net from the right circle with six minutes remaining in the game. It was Benn’s first multi-goal game of the season.
Stars' goalie finished off his near perfect game with 10 saves in the final period.
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