OTTAWA, Ontario – Antoine Roussel scored the go-ahead goal late in the third period, leading the Dallas Stars past the Ottawa Senators 2-1 on Sunday night.
Jason Spezza also scored for the Stars, and Kari Lehtonen made 23 saves.
Zack Smith scored the lone goal for Ottawa. Andrew Hammond turned aside 23 shots in the loss, which left the Senators six points back of the Detroit Red Wings for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Senators appeared to take the lead five minutes into the third when Curtis Lazar shot the puck into the back of the net. But the Stars challenged that the play was offside — and a review determined that Mike Hoffman was just a step ahead of the play, negating the goal.
Smith opened the scoring with his 18th of the season at 4:45 of the second. Mark Stone made a great pass from behind the net to Smith in front.
The Stars tied it at 14:05 on the power play as Spezza fired a shot through traffic. Spezza, a former Senator, has scored a goal against all 30 NHL teams.
Roussel gave Dallas the lead at 17:46 of the third as the Sens scrambled in their own end.
Despite a scoreless first period, the Senators were able to gain some momentum off some good scoring chances. Smith was stopped from in close and Ryan Dzingel had a great chance midway through the period, but Lehtonen was solid.
NOTES: Ottawa D Marc Methot played his 500th NHL career game. ... Senators G Craig Anderson remains day-to-day with a knee injury. ... D Michael Kostka made his Senators debut in place of Patrick Wiercioch. ... The Stars were without LW Patrick Sharp (lower body) and RW Patrick Eaves (illness).
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