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Blues top Stars

Dec 27, 2011 - 4:31 AM St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) - Chris Stewart netted a pair of goals, leading the St. Louis Blues to a 5-3 victory over the Dallas Stars at Scottrade Center.

Adam Cracknell, Jason Arnott and Evgeny Grachev each found the back of the net, while David Perron and Patrik Berglund added a pair of assists apiece for the Blues, who have won two consecutive games.

Jaroslav Halak made 20 saves to earn the win.

"We played really hard tonight," Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock said. "I loved our effort tonight and our compete level."

Mike Ribiero, Eric Nystrom and Michael Ryder scored for the Stars, who have alternated wins and losses in their past six contests. Richard Bachman made 22 saves on 25 shots, while Andrew Raycroft stopped 11-of-12 shots in relief.

St. Louis opened the scoring at 8:24 of the first period on the power play when David Backes raced though the neutral zone with speed and dished to Stewart on the right wing. Stewart drove wide and fired a shot from along the goal line that snuck past Bachman to give the Blues the 1-0 lead.

The Stars found the tying goal at 4:22 of the second period when Ribeiro accepted a feed from Alex Goligoski in the right circle and wristed it through the legs of Halak to tie it at one.

But the Blues came right back to re-take the lead less than two minutes later as Cracknell picked up the puck in the neutral zone off a turnover and fired a weak wrister on net from the right circle that squeezed through Bachman to make it 2-1.

Following a late penalty to Philip Larson for high-sticking, the Blues made it 3-1 with just three ticks left in the second period when Arnott fired a slap shot from the left point past Bachman, ending his night.

The Blues extended the lead to a seemingly comfortable 4-1 margin when Perron fired a shot from the right circle that was kicked out by Raycroft, but Grachev pounced on a big rebound and fired it home at 6:43 of the third period.

Dallas responded with consecutive goals by Nystrom and Ryder to make it a one- goal game.

Nystrom's goal came at 7:57 when he got a pass in the slot from Radek Dvorak and fired it past Halak. Ryder found the back of the net at 14:47 when he picked up the puck in the neutral zone and went in on a 2-on-1 with Loui Eriksson. Ryder elected to shoot and ripped a wrister over the glove of Halak to make it 4-3.

Stewart added an empty-netter with 51 seconds left to seal the win for the Blues.

"Going on the road against a good defensive club, I thought we needed to put more pucks on net," Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan said. "We certainly need our special teams to be better. It's hard to win on the road, especially against this type of club if your specialty teams aren't that good."

Game Notes

St. Louis was a perfect 2-for-2 on the power play, while the Stars failed to convert on two power play opportunities...Dallas will head home to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday, while St.Louis will travel to Detroit to battle the Red Wings on Tuesday...It was Grachev's first career NHL goal...Dallas fell to 2-11 when trailing after two periods of play.