CALGARY, Alberta – Jamie Benn snapped a nine-game scoring drought with two goals, including the game-winner, as the Dallas Stars beat the Calgary Flames 4-2 on Thursday night to snap a five-game winless streak.
When an offensive zone penalty by Alex Chiasson put the Stars on the power play early in the third period, it took less than a minute for Dallas to take advantage against the Flames' 29th-ranked penalty kill.
A quick passing sequence down low was capped off neatly by Benn, who fired a feed from Tyler Seguin past Brian Elliott at 7:20 while alone in the slot to give his team a 3-2 lead.
After a career-best 41 goals last season, Benn had just two goals in his first 13 games and the slow start for him and Seguin, as well as the team, led to coach Lindy Ruff putting the two on separate lines against the Flames.
Lauri Korpikoski and Antoine Roussel, with an empty-netter, also scored for Dallas (5-6-3). The Stars are 1-1-1 with two stops to go on a five-game trip.
Johnny Gaudreau scored both goals for Calgary (5-9-1). The Flames have lost five of their last six overall. They continue to struggle at home, where they fell to 2-5-0 on the season.
With the Flames trailing 2-0, Gaudreau came out flying to start the second, breaking a six-game scoring drought with his third and fourth goals on his first two shifts to tie it.
At 1:33, he jammed in a loose puck after Kari Lehtonen could not control Brett Kulak's hard slap shot.
Kulak was also the shooter on his second goal less than 2 minutes later, this time it was Gaudreau deflecting the point shot over Lehtonen's shoulder.
At 12:31, teammates Dougie Hamilton and Sam Bennett lost a puck battle along the end boards with Radek Faksa sliding the puck in front, where it was snapped into the top corner by Korpikoski.
Benn made it 2-0 3 minutes later on some poor defensive coverage. When the entire slot opened up before him and he took the puck to the net and zipped a backhand past Elliott.
Lehtonen, whom gave up four goals on 11 shots Tuesday in Winnipeg, finished with 29 saves to improve to 2-4-2.
Elliott, who had 18 saves, fell to 3-7-0.
NOTES: Calgary was 0 for 2 on the power play and is 0 for 26 with the extra man at home. ... Gaudreau's parents were in the crowd, having just flown in from New Jersey. ... Flames rookie Matthew Tkachuk did play after getting stitches in his hand at practice on Wednesday. He's day to day. ... Stars D Jamie Oleksiak was in the lineup after being a healthy scratch the past nine games.
UP NEXT:
Stars: Visit Edmonton on Friday.
Flames: Host the New York Rangers on Saturday.
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