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Williams leads Blackhawks past Stars

Nov 1, 2007 - 4:27 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- Mike Modano nearly reached a milestone without even touching for the puck. Unfortunately for the Dallas Stars, Jason Williams touched the puck all too often.

Williams scored the game's final two goals - the last with 20.4 seconds remaining - as the Chicago Blackhawks edged the Stars, 5-4, on Wednesday.

After Williams tied the game with 7:11 remaining by banging home a crisp feed from Robert Lang, he scored the game-winner by beating goaltender Mike Smith with a slap shot in the game's waning moments.

"(Dallas defenseman Philippe) Boucher went down to try to block it and I tried to get it on the net, blocker side," Williams said. "It happened to go over the goaltender's pad. I was just trying to get it on net and end of the shift and get a (line) change."

Modano originally was credited with the secondary assist on defenseman Sergei Zubov's power-play goal midway through the third period. However, video replays of the play showed Modano never touched the puck, and after the game, the official scorers took away the phantom assist.

"Someone screwed up, it's partly why I didn't want to stand up (during the crowd's reaction)," Modano said. "After a moment, I stood to get it over with and get the game running again. Somebody else figured it, but I told them after the game, you can't do it that way."

Modano remains at 1,231 career points, one shy of tying Phil Housley for the all-time scoring lead among American-born players.

Modano, a native of Livonia, Michigan, has 509 goals and 722 assists. The Stars' assistant captain already owns the American record for goals.

With the Stars on a 5-on-3 power play, Mike Ribeiro carried the puck into the offensive zone before feeding Zubov in the slot. The blue-liner beat netminder Nikolai Khabibulin to give the Stars a 4-3 lead with 9:53 remaining in the third period.

Ribeiro admitted that he did not know if Modano had touched the puck or not.

"I'm not sure what happened," he said. "I won the faceoff and turned my back and received the puck."

Ribeiro opened the scoring just 4:02 into the game.

Boucher's blast from the blue line sailed wide of the net, but the puck caromed off the end boards and right to Ribeiro at the side of the net. Ribeiro banged it off Khabibulin's body and into the net from a sharp angle to give the Stars a 1-0 lead.

The goal extended Ribeiro's points streak to a career-high seven games.

Rookie Jonathan Toews responded three minutes later to level the game at 1-1.

The third overall pick in the 2006 draft, Toews received a feed from Tuomo Ruutu and wristed it between the legs of goalie Marty Turco.

For Toews, the goal marked the 10th straight game in which he has recorded a point. It is the second longest streak by a rookie to start their NHL career since Boston's Dmitri Kvartalnov scored in his first 14 contests in 1992.

Chicago scored two goals just over two minutes apart midway through the second period, causing Dallas coach Dave Tippett to pull Turco with 9:01 left in the session.

"Our starts have been average some nights. I thought tonight was our best start of the year," Blackhawks coach Denis Savard said. "It's something we can program in their minds and get starts like this every night. We challenged them this week. Lose three in a row like we had, it's difficult to take. But this is a sign of a character team, and it showed tonight."

James Wisniewski gave the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead with 11:30 remaining. The defenseman fired a slap shot from just inside the blue line that slipped underneath Turco's glove.

Dallas had successfully killed 14 straight power-play opportunities before surrendering the goal.

Patrick Kane scored 2:09 later to give the Blackhawks a 3-1 bulge. The first overall pick this past June, the 18-year-old pivoted and dragged the puck around his body before wristing a shot into the top right corner of the net.

Boucher halved the deficit 40 seconds into the third period, firing a shot from the top of the slot past Khabibulin for his first goal of the season.

Niklas Hagman evened the game at 3-3 with a shorthanded tally. After Chicago committed a turnover in its offensive zone, Zubov raced up with the puck before losing Kane, who was backchecking on the play.

Zubov's shot from the faceoff circle was deflected by Hagman for his seventh goal of the campaign.

"Sometimes when you play with the lead, you're mind set changes a little bit, and we've got to get that back," Stars captain Brenden Morrow said.

Khabibulin made 19 saves for Chicago.

Turco stopped 18 shots for Dallas before being pulled in favor of Smith, who made six saves.