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Stars reach milestone in win over Wild

Feb 25, 2012 - 6:17 AM Dallas, TX (Sports Network) - Kari Lehtonen made 28 saves as the Dallas Stars reached a franchise milestone with a 4-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Friday.

Tom Wandell scored twice, while Loui Eriksson and Eric Nystrom also tallied goals for the Stars, who earned their third straight victory to become the 10th franchise in NHL history to reach 1,500 wins, 758 of which took place when the club was known as the Minnesota North Stars.

"It's encouraging," Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan said about his team's balanced attack. "Going down the stretch, if you're getting contributions from everybody then everybody gets more confidence."

Devin Setoguchi netted the lone goal for the Wild, who had their brief two- game win streak snapped with their 16th straight loss to the Stars in Dallas. The Wild have not defeated the Stars on the road since March 21, 2003.

Niklas Backstrom started the game in net for Minnesota, but was pulled in the second period after allowing three goals on 14 shots. Matt Hackett entered in relief and stopped all 10 shots he faced.

"Our execution was really bad tonight," said Wild head coach Mike Yeo. "Everything just seemed to be a broken play."

Wandell struck first for Dallas when he followed his own rebound to beat Backstrom to the glove side at the 8:48 mark of the first period.

Eriksson sent the Stars into the first intermission with a two-goal lead when he finished off an offensive flurry by receiving a pass in the slot and skating down to the left of the net before lifting a wrister past Backstrom with 2:20 left in the opening frame.

Nystrom's one-timer from the slot 3:53 into the second period gave Dallas a 3-0 edge and resulted in Backstrom being pulled in favor of Hackett.

Lehtonen made eight saves in the first period and 10 in the second to keep the Wild off the board, but Minnesota was awarded a 5-on-3 advantage in the third period and capitalized to end Lehtonen's shutout bid.

Dany Heatley faked a shot from the right circle before sending a pass down to the left of the net, where Setoguchi one-timed it home with 7:17 left in the game.

Wandell's empty-net goal within the final minute accounted for the final margin.

Game Notes

Prior to the game, Minnesota acquired forwards Nick Palmieri and Stephane Veilleux, defenseman Kurtis Foster, a second-round pick in 2012 and a conditional third-round pick in 2013 from the New Jersey Devils in exchange for defenseman Marek Zidlicky...Dallas' Mike Ribeiro had an assist to extend his points streak to six games (2G, 6A)...Minnesota went 1-for-6 on the power play, while Dallas was 0-for-2 on the man advantage.