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Ribeiro's OT goal lifts Stars past Coyotes

Mar 19, 2007 - 5:20 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- Mike Ribeiro made sure the Dallas Stars moved up in the playoff race.

Ribeiro scored two goals, including the game-winning tally, to help lift the Stars to a 5-4 overtime victory over the Phoenix Coyotes.

With the win, Dallas (43-24-5) moved into a tie with idle Minnesota (42-24-7) for sixth place in the Western Conference standings.

In the extra session, Ribeiro scooped the puck and scored on the rebound against Phoenix goaltender Mikael Tellqvist at the 40- second mark. It was his 13th goal of the season.

"The puck was just there and I just jumped with the open net," Ribeiro said. "It was nice to get one. I missed one not long before I scored one. I've been missing a lot of open nets, so I figured this one I might as well go ... in the net."

Ribeiro and Sergei Zubov each tallied in the third period to help the Stars tie the game, 3-3. But Shane Doan sent the contest into overtime with a blistering slap shot past netminder Marty Turco with 40 seconds in regulation.

"You want to play games that mean something," Doan said. "You want to be in a situation that matters and have a chance to win a game that matters a lot, and you want to do that whenever you can."

Turco and Mike Smith combined for 16 saves while Brenden Morrow and Niklas Hagman each had first-period goals for the Stars, who have won seven of their last nine home games.

"We are realizing the way we need to play the rest of the way and we have to show accountability in all facets of the game," Turco said. "We battled through a number of penalties and just fought for these two points."

Dallas improved to 5-1-0 against Phoenix this season. They meet again March 27.

Derek Morris and Mathias Tjarnqvist both tallied in the second period for Phoenix, which was whistled for 42 penalty minutes.

"During the game, you always get frustrated," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "As a coach, you never think that you're getting enough calls and you think that the other side is getting too many, but I thought it was pretty even both ways.

"They probably had a couple of calls that they felt weren't right and we thought there were a couple that went our way, but that's part of the game."

The Coyotes fell to a dismal 1-7-1 in their last nine matchups.