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Stars hold off Devils

Dec 14, 2014 - 6:01 AM Dallas, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - Shawn Horcoff scored the deciding goal late in the second period as the Dallas Stars held off a late New Jersey push for a 4-3 victory on Saturday.

Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza each finished with a goal and an assist, Trevor Daley also scored and Antoine Roussel supplied two helpers for the Stars, who entered the game with five losses in their previous six games.

Kari Lehtonen stopped 28-of-31 shots in the win.

Jon Merrill, Eric Gelinas and Scott Gomez all lit the lamp for New Jersey, which dropped its third straight game.

"We battled hard tonight, but we just came up short," Devils forward Michael Ryder said. We've got to find ways to win."

Cory Schneider allowed four goals on 33 shots over the first two periods and Keith Kinkaid made three saves in relief during the third.

Dallas surged ahead with two quick goals late in the second period.

Daley's heavy slap shot from the right circle put Dallas in front with 5:05 left in the second and Horcoff tapped home Vernon Fiddler's pass off the rush 1:57 later for a 4-2 lead.

"There were a lot of good things," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "I thought we missed in the second period, three or four point-blank that would have really put the game away."

The Devils pulled Kinkaid with under two minutes to play. stepped up and fired a shot from the right circle. Gomez was there to tap in the rebound with 1:07 remaining.

Kinkaid was taken off the ice again in favor of an extra attacker, but the Devils were unable to net the equalizer.

Erik Cole entered the zone and dished a pass to Seguin, who blasted a one- timer from the slot for the game's opening marker with 5:21 to play in the first period.

Spezza missed on his initial wrap-around attempt, but stayed with the puck and shot it over the pad of Schneider for a 2-0 lead with three minutes remaining in the first.

After Jamie Benn went off for high-sticking 4:09 into the second, the Devils converted on the power play as Merrill's wrister cut the deficit in half 17 seconds into the man-advantage.

Gelinas' shot from the right point bounced off a defender and into the net for a tie game at 7:46 of the second.

Game Notes

Devils forward Jaromir Jagr tied Steve Yzerman for seventh on the NHL's all- time assists list with 1,063 ... Stars forward Ryan Garbutt served the first of his three-game suspension for slew-footing Winnipeg's Dustin Byfuglien on Tuesday ... New Jersey forward Dainius Zubrus missed a second straight game with a left leg laceration ... The Devils are 3-7-3 against the Western Conference this season.