Stars 5 - 3 Hurricanes
Final
  for this game

Stars top Hurricanes

Mar 13, 2015 - 5:50 AM Raleigh, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - The Dallas Stars scored four straight goals and held on for a 5-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.

Patrick Eaves, Cody Eakin and Alex Goligoski all finished with a goal and an assist to help Dallas improve to 2-1-0 on its five-game road trip. Curtis McKenzie and Jason Demers also tallied goals.

Kari Lehtonen only faced 19 shots in his 500th NHL game but made 16 saves in the win.

"It was exciting, especially at the start of the game. You start thinking about your first game and things like that. It was a nice little milestone," Lehtonen said. "But after that it was just another game. You need to battle and stay calm. I was good enough today."

The Hurricanes fell to 1-2-1 on their five-game homestand despite getting a goal and two assists from Victor Rask. Brett Bellemore added a goal and an assist, and Andrej Nestrasil also scored a goal.

Anton Khudobin allowed four goals on 31 shots in the setback.

"I don't think we deserved to win, to be honest with you," said Nestrasil.

Just 3 1/2 minutes after Carolina went up 1-0 on Rask's goal, Shawn Horcoff slid a pass across the slot and McKenzie got just enough of it with his stick to redirect the puck past Khudobin for the equalizing goal.

The Stars only needed three more minutes to take their first lead of the game when Goligoski found a soft spot in the defense in the slot and snapped a shot by Khudobin.

Demers extended Dallas' lead to two goals with a few minutes remaining in the period when his wrist shot got through traffic and beat Khudobin short- side.

While completely stifling Carolina's attack in the third period, the Stars were able to add an insurance goal. Goligoski's shot from the blue line was deflected by Eakin in front to make it 4-1.

It took the Hurricanes over 13 minutes to get their first shot of the third period. Just 20 seconds later, the puck bounced off skates in the crease after a Rask shot before finally deflecting off Nestrasil into the net.

Less than a minute later, Carolina pulled within one. Bellemore's shot from the blue line got past Lehtonen and the goalie swatted it into the net while trying to cover the puck.

With time winding down and Khudobin out of the net, the Hurricanes won a faceoff in the offensive zone before a Lehtonen save and an empty-net goal from Eaves.

Game Notes

The teams split the season series ... Carolina is 2-27-2 when trailing after two periods ... Dallas defenseman John Klingberg sat out with an upper-body injury ... The game featured five former No. 2 overall picks in their respective drafts in Jason Spezza, Lehtonen, Eric Staal, Jordan Staal and Tyler Seguin.






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