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Kane, Barker help Blackhawks blitz defenseless Stars

Nov 1, 2008 - 4:15 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- The Dallas Stars' defense is a sieve, and they know it has to change.

Patrick Kane recorded a goal and two assists while defenseman Cam Barker netted a tally and set up another as the Chicago Blackhawks rolled to a 5-2 victory over the defensively challenged Stars on Friday.

Defenseman Brent Sopel snapped a tie in the second period and Andrew Ladd and Dustin Byfuglien also tallied for Chicago, which snapped a two-game skid. Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 21 shots for the Blackhawks.

Steve Ott and Loui Eriksson scored for Dallas, which has allowed a league-high 45 goals. The Stars have surrendered 15 tallies in their last four games, and their defense let them down once again.

"We need to cut down on our goals against," Stars center Mike Ribeiro said. "It's been like five goals a night we have allowed, and we can't expect to score six goals every night."

The Blackhawks scored three unanswered goals after Ott tied the game in the second.

"This was a total team loss," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "We made too many mistakes to win this game, and we did not play a total road game."

A quartet of Blackhawks took advantage of the Stars' defense to record their first goals of the season. However, none of them were second-year star Jonathan Toews, who scored 24 as a rookie.

"It was great to have four guys get their first goals," Kane said. "Of course, Toews still needs to get his first one."

Sopel recorded his first goal when he snapped a 2-2 deadlock with 6:34 left in the second. He sent a slap shot from the top of the right faceoff circle past screened goaltender Tobias Stephan.

"Everyone was scrapping along the boards and the puck just came out to me," Sopel said. "So I just fired it at the net and I'm glad it went in."

Ladd gave the Blackhawks some breathing room with 6:10 remaining in the third with his first goal of the season. He took a feed from Barker on the left wing and sent a wrist shot past Stephan and into the upper left corner of the net.

"Hopefully, I can keep it rolling now," Ladd said of his first goal. "Once you break through, it gives you more confidence, then you are not afraid to shoot. Our line has to keep it going every night."

Byfuglien scored his first of the campaign just over two minutes later on a tip-in.

"Those guys (Byfuglien and Ladd) had been doing everything we wanted them to do but score goals," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "Tonight, their goals were big, but they were both big on the ice in other ways."

It was a back-and-forth contest prior to Chicago's outburst. Dallas knotted the game at 2-2 at 7:39 of the middle period, when Ott beat Khabibulin between the pads on a breakaway.

Kane had put the Blackhawks up, 2-1, with 70 seconds to go in the first, when he tapped in a pass from Martin Havlat during a 2-on-1 rush before crashing into the net.

Eriksson opened the scoring at 6:17 of the first, but Barker tied it with a power-play tally nearly four minutes later.

Stephan stopped 27 shots in his second straight start in place of the ineffective Marty Turco. Turco is 3-4-2 with a 4.26 goals-against average in nine games this season.