ANAHEIM, Calif. – Defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky completed his second three-goal game in the NHL on a power play with 3.8 seconds left in overtime, and Teemu Selanne scored the tying goal with 1:03 remaining in the third period in the Anaheim Ducks' 4-3 victory over the Dallas Stars on Friday night.
Dan Ellis, who made 23 saves, kept the Ducks alive with an acrobatic glove save on a one-timer from short range by Trevor Daley at the end of a 2-on-1 break with Mike Ribeiro with 1½ minutes left in OT. The Ducks were awarded the timely power play when Tom Wandell was sent off for hooking Ryan Getzlaf with 24.6 seconds left.
Anaheim and Dallas are tied with Nashville for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 75 points, just three points behind fourth-place Chicago.
Getzlaf had three assists, one of them on Selanne's 400th goal with the Ducks and another on Visnovsky's 12th goal of the season. Visnovsky, the first defenseman in Ducks history to record a hat trick, is third in the NHL in points among defensemen with 51 — five more than he had last season in 73 games with Anaheim and Edmonton. His career high is 67 with Los Angeles in 2005-06.
With the Ducks trailing 3-1, Visnovsky started the rally at 5:24 on a one-timer from the top of the right circle that beat Kari Lehtonen high to the glove side while Stephane Robidas was off for holding Brad Winchester. It was Winchester's second game with Anaheim after a trade from St. Louis.
Selanne tied it with his 627th NHL goal. Visnovsky ended it with a 35-foot slap shot from the slot that beat Lehtonen high to the glove side, snapping the Stars' three-game winning streak.
Jamie Benn triggered a three-goal second period for Dallas, Loui Eriksson scored his team-high 10th power-play goal, and Adam Burish also scored. Lehtonen made 25 saves.
Dallas and Anaheim were coming off victories that featured dramatic endings. The Ducks beat Detroit 2-1 Wednesday night when Bobby Ryan scored on a penalty shot in overtime. The Stars topped Phoenix 3-2 on Tuesday night on Benn's power-play goal with 5 seconds left.
Burish, wearing a cage-style helmet for the fourth straight game after missing the previous eight because of a broken orbital bone sustained in a fight with Boston's Andrew Ference, put Dallas ahead 2-1 at 10:35 of the second period with a short wrist shot past Ellis' stick.
Anaheim rookie Brandon McMillan was sent off with 3:04 left in the period for hooking Eriksson, who scored Dallas' third goal on a deflection of Robidas' 55-foot one-timer with 19 seconds left on the power play.
With the teams skating 4-on-4 because of coincidental roughing penalties to Jarkko Ruutu and Dallas' Jamie Langenbrunner, Anaheim opened the scoring at 9:22 of the first period when Visnovsky got the puck in the slot from Ryan and beat Lehtonen with a 35-foot slap shot just as teammate Dan Sexton skated in front of the goalie.
Dallas tied it at 2:23 of the second when Benn left a drop pass for newly acquired defenseman Alex Goligoski at the top of the right circle, headed for the net and redirected Goligoski's return pass for his 15th goal. It came less than a minute after Ellis thwarted Brenden Morrow's close-in scoring bid following another slick pass in front by Ribeiro.
NOTES: The only active player other than Selanne to score at least 400 goals with one club is Calgary's Jarome Iginla (468). ... Anaheim LW Jason Blake was scratched because of a laceration on his right hand, which occurred in the third period of Wednesday's game. ... Stars C Brad Richards, who recorded his 200th NHL goal with the game-winner against the Ducks in the previous meeting back on Nov. 16 at Dallas, missed his eighth straight game because of concussion-like symptoms. ... Anaheim C Saku Koivu missed his fifth straight game because of a groin injury. ... Dallas is 18-0-3 this season when leading after two periods, and 39-1-5 under those circumstances since the start of last season. The only regulation loss during that stretch was at Nashville on Oct. 31, 2009, when the Predators turned a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 victory against backup goalie Alex Auld while Marty Turco sat out with the flu.
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