DALLAS – Jason Spezza scored in his fifth straight game, Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn ended goal-scoring slumps and the Dallas Stars regained the Western Conference lead by beating the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 on Friday night.
Dallas improved to 41-20-8 with 90 points, one more than St. Louis and two more than Chicago. Each team has 13 games remaining.
Kari Lehtonen made 21 saves for the Stars, who are 3-0-1 in their last four games. Antoine Roussel and Ales Hemsky also scored.
Teuvo Teravainen and Tomas Fleischmann scored for Chicago.
Benn's power-play goal at 10:42 of the second gave Dallas a 4-0 lead. Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville then removed Corey Crawford, who had 16 saves. Scott Darling finished with 10 saves. He was pulled for an extra skater with 8:10 to play and returned after Ales Hemsky's empty-net goal with 4:31 left.
Spezza scored his fourth power-play goal in the last five games. He has eight goals, six on the power play, in the last nine games.
Spezza assisted on Seguin's goal, which ended a streak of six games without one. Benn had not scored in the previous seven. Benn and Hemsky each had a goal and an assist.
The Blackhawks have allowed 16 goals on the power play in the last 13 games.
Dallas defenseman Stephen Johns made his NHL debut because of injuries to John Klingberg, Jordie Benn and Jason Demers. During the offseason, Chicago traded Johns and forward Patrick Sharp to the Stars. Sharp also missed this game because of injury.
The Stars scored on their first power play after killing consecutive penalties for 3:53. Jamie Benn passed from the right point along the blue line to Spezza above the slot. He sent a wrist shot into the lower left corner of the net at 11:08 of the first period.
Chicago's best scoring chance came just before their power play began at 6:57. Marian Hossa had a close-in shot that Lehtonen saved.
Roussel scored 1:09 into the second period. Alex Goligoski skated behind the net to the right and passed out to Roussel, who flipped the puck over Crawford to the upper left corner.
Seguin and Benn each have 33 goals this season.
NOTES: Spezza reached 800 career points. ... Sharp and Johns were traded for F Ryan Garbutt and D Trevor Daley. The Blackhawks traded Garbutt and Daley during this season, and even the players received for them (Jiri Sekac and Rob Scuderi) are no longer with Chicago. ... Hossa returned after missing nine games because of a lower-body injury. ... Benn's seven-game scoring slump was his longest since an 11-game drought that ended last March 13. Seguin's six games without a goal were his most since he went 12 games in January of 2014. ... Blackhawks rookie D Erik Gustafsson had his first NHL penalty in his 32nd game when he went off for delay of game at 8:20 of the third period. The Stars are 3-1 in the season series.
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A previous version of this story wrongly stated Dallas was three points ahead of St. Louis. The Stars are one point ahead of the Blues.
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