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Lehtinen leads Stars past Flames

Jan 18, 2007 - 5:46 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- The Dallas Stars finished their four-game homestand on a high note.

Jere Lehtinen scored two goals to lead the Stars to a 4-2 victory over the Calgary Flames and salvage the last two games of their stay at home.

Rookie Joel Lundqvist and Stu Barnes scored less than two minutes apart in the second period for Dallas, proving to be all the difference.

"We have really hunkered down and worked hard this week, so these two points feel good," Barnes said. "We have played well in two games so far this week and we have one more on Saturday in Minnesota."

Lundqvist tallied his first career goal 6:28 into the second period off a rebound which he slammed past goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff, snapping a 1-1 tie. Barnes netted his seventh goal of the season 1:49 later on a slap shot past the right shoulder of Kiprusoff, who had 20 saves.

"It's nice to talk away the zero from my stats line," Lundqvist said. "I was like, 'It went in?' I couldn't believe it, but the most important thing is that we won the game and I know that if I have a bad game I could be back in Iowa so playing hard every shift is important to me."

Dallas had dropped the opening two games of the homestand by a combined 10-3 margin before bouncing back with two straight victories.

Goaltender Marty Turco made 18 saves and added an assist for the Stars, who were 1-for-5 on the power play.

"We weren't collecting wins like we were earlier in the year so this feels good," Turco said. "We have been in a lot of games but we needed maximum effort from everyone to win them. The guys played great and we had a solid team effort all around."

Lehtinen collected bookend goals for Dallas. He opened the scoring 3:04 into the first period and added an empty netter with 59 seconds to play.

Kristian Huselius and Stephane Yelle each had a goal for the Flames, who also finished 1-for-5 with the extra attacker.

"We didn't really play our way in the second (period)," Huselius said. "In the third we had a good comeback, but it was too much being down by two goals going into the third."

"When you look at the way we came out to compete early on the game, it wasn't consistent with the way we have to lay on the road," Calgary coach Jim Playfair said. "When you look at the goals that were scored against us, they were preventable goals."