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Perry lifts Ducks past Stars

Dec 21, 2006 - 8:02 AM ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- Corey Perry and the Anaheim Ducks showed the Dallas Stars who controls the Pacific Division.

Perry scored two goals and Scott Niedermayer added a power-play tally as the Ducks posted a 4-1 victory over the Stars for their 14th win in their last 17 games.

Coming into the contest, Anaheim was atop the Pacific and Dallas was two spots back. The Stars owned an 11-1-1 record against opponents in the division, but the Ducks evened up their season series at 1-1 with the visitors behind Perry.

"We're what ... 11 and 1 or 10 and 1 against our division," Stars left winger Brenden Morrow. "We've played really well. But, we've been an average or a below-average team for a month or a month and a half now. We can't live off our first-month's record."

After defenseman Chris Pronger blasted a slap shot between the legs of goaltender Marty Turco nearly 3 1/2 minutes into the first period, Perry extended the lead to 2-0 on a slap shot from inside the right faceoff circle with 9:22 left in the session.

"Before, the puck was going one way and I was going the other way," Perry said. "Right now, I'm getting the bounces. Scoring goals is my job and that's what got me here. So, I was putting a little pressure on myself, and it was frustrating going through that stretch. Mentally, my confidence is coming back."

After Dallas halved the margin, Perry tallied on a spinning wrist shot under the crossbar 13 seconds into the second period, making it 3-1.

"On the second one (goal), right after the faceoff, the puck bounced to the slot," Perry said. "I knew I didn't have a backhand shot available, so I just turned and fired it. I just tried to get it up because I knew there would be a lot of traffic."

Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 26 saves for Anaheim, which killed all three of Dallas' man-advantage opportunities.

Stu Barnes netted the lone goal for the Stars while Turco denied 17 shots before being replaced by rookie Mike Smith, who finished with six saves.

"We didn't do enough to win the game, that's the bottom line," Dallas coach Dave Tippett said. "We're concerned with what we do, not what they do. We didn't make it a hard enough game for them."

For the second time this season, Dallas held a postgame meeting that lasted nearly 20 minutes.

"It's (the meeting) not anybody's business but ours," Turco said.