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Gaborik helps Wild exact revenge vs. Stars

Jan 4, 2008 - 5:21 AM ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Ticker) -- After being on the wrong end of a one-sided blowout last week, the Minnesota Wild gained a measure of revenge against the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

Marian Gaborik scored two goals and defenseman Brent Burns added three assists as the Wild benefited from a four-goal first period and cruised to a 6-3 victory over the Stars.

Pierre-Marc Bouchard had a goal and two assists for Minnesota, which rebounded from an embarrassing 8-3 loss to Dallas on December 26.

"We definitely got our (butts) kicked last game over there and we wanted to get back at them," Minnesota's Eric Belanger said. "But we'll see them in a couple of days, so we've got to be ready. They'll be waiting for us."

The Wild have won seven of their last 10 games, while the Stars have lost three in a row for the second time this season.

Gaborik opened the scoring with a shorthanded tally midway into the first period.

After gaining possession in his own zone, Pavol Demitra sent the puck toward center ice, and a streaking Gaborik tapped it past defenseman Trevor Daley before heading up ice. Gaborik regained possession of the puck, skated in on Marty Turco and faked him to the ice before lifting it over the prone netminder.

Demitra doubled the Wild's advantage 65 seconds later.

Bouchard skated in and fired a shot on Turco, who turned it aside. As numerous players crashed the net, Demitra trailed the play and wristed the puck in for his eighth goal of the season.

Bouchard gave Minnesota a three-goal bulge just over two minutes later, wristing a shot from the left faceoff circle past Turco for his seventh goal.

The tally ended the night for Turco, who allowed three goals on four shots after just 13:14 of action. Mike Smith replaced Turco and made 13 saves.

"They made some nice plays, it's not like our goalie was bad," Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas said. "They had some tic-tac-toes and that one breakaway. They took the lead and deserved to take the lead. It's not like they had lucky bounces or anything."

Stu Barnes got Dallas on the scoreboard just 53 seconds later.

Niklas Hagman skated into the slot and fed a streaking Barnes in the left circle. Barnes fired a quick shot that beat goaltender Niklas Backstrom for his fifth goal of the campaign.

Gaborik restored the three-goal cushion with 89 seconds remaining in the first period.

After Steve Ott turned over the puck in his own zone, Gaborik quickly wristed a shot past Smith to give Minnesota a 4-1 lead. It was his 21st goal of the season.

"We lost big time in Dallas, so we thought we had to stay with their top line, which played really good (in Dallas)," Gaborik said. "We did all the good things in that period."

"That first period was bad, it pretty much ended there," Dallas' Mike Modano said. "We get a little bit of a push there in the second and had an opportunity to make it interesting, but to try to score three or four on these guys?"

That especially was the case considering Dallas' lack of firepower recently. The Stars scored just one goal in their previous two games.

Midway through the second session, Belanger deflected Gaborik's shot from beyond the right circle past Smith to extend the advantage to 5-1. It was Belanger's sixth power-play goal, tying him with Gaborik for the team lead.

With under five minutes remaining in the second, Ott redeemed himself for his defensive lapse by backhanding a shot past Backstrom from the right circle, drawing Dallas within three.

Defenseman Matt Niskanen cut the deficit to 5-3 by scoring with 99 seconds remaining in the period.

That was all the Stars could muster against Backstrom, who made 24 saves.

"Ability with the puck lately is not really good," Modano said. "Play with the puck, passing, it just seems to be a struggle to get the puck up and down the ice. That's not going to spell too much success for us."

It spelled a win for Minnesota, which has struggled against the top tier of the Western Conference. In fact, the Wild improved to just 3-9-0 this season against conference teams with a better record.

"We've been looking for that all year," Wild coach Jacques Lemaire said. "We didn't get too many victories against the top teams, and it's really nice to be able to do this. But our game is better, too. I like it even more because our game is better."