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Lehtinen's shootout goal give Stars win over Coyotes

Mar 25, 2007 - 6:46 AM GLENDALE, Arizona (Ticker) -- Thanks to Jere Lehtinen, the Dallas Stars avoided an embarrassing and costly loss.

Lehtinen scored in the seventh round of the shootout as the Stars posted a 4-3 comeback victory over the lowly Phoenix Coyotes.

Brenden Morrow had a goal and two assists and Mike Ribeiro set up three tallies for the Stars (45-24-6), who pulled into a second-place tie with the San Jose Sharks (46-26-4) in the Pacific Division, four points behind the idle Anaheim Ducks (44-19-12).

After goaltenders Curtis Joseph of Phoenix and Marty Turco of Dallas were perfect through six rounds of the bonus format, Lehtinen snapped a shot over Joseph's glove to give the Coyotes the edge.

"I was thinking if I go out there I was going to just shoot because a lot of guys tried to do something else and it didn't go in," Lehtinen said. "I got a pretty good shot and it went in. I knew I was going to go top corner. In my mind all the way, that is where I was going to go."

"He came in and let it go fairly high, it was a perfect shot under the bar," Joseph said. "Maybe I backed in a little too quick but he shot it right away."

Turco preserved the victory when he denied Mike Zigomanis with a glove save on Phoenix's last opportunity.

"It ends up being between me and Curtis but it really is him against my guys and vice versa," Turco said. "Curtis certainly deserved a better fate tonight. I don't like shootouts ... they are a nightmare for goalies."

The Coyotes built a 3-0 lead after two periods before the Stars stormed back in the third. Morrow got Dallas on the board 36 seconds into the session and Antti Miettinen tallied at 6:13 to cut the deficit to one.

Morrow scored when he took Ribeiro's pass in the doorstep and jammed the puck past Joseph.

Miettinen cut the deficit to 3-2 just under six minutes later on the power play when he poked a rebound home during a scramble in front of the Phoenix net.

The right wing, who scored in a 5-4 triumph over Phoenix on Sunday, has three goals in his last four contests.

Rookie Loui Eriksson forged a 3-3 tie with 6:47 to go when he jammed the rebound of Ribeiro's shot past Joseph for his fifth goal of the season.

"Morrow came in and passed to Ribs (Ribeiro) then I had an open net," Eriksson said. "I didn't see it when it went in but it did."

Rookie Daniel Carcillo, Mathias Tjarnqvist and Zigomanis scored for Phoenix, which is tied with Chicago for last place in the Western Conference.

Joseph made 22 saves and remained at 444 career victories, three behind Hall of Famer Terry Sawchuk for fourth place on the all-time netminder wins list.