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Miettinen propels Stars past Blues

Feb 10, 2008 - 5:07 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- Antti Miettinen scored twice and All-Star Mike Ribeiro netted a goal and set up two others as the Dallas Stars recorded their sixth consecutive victory Saturday, a 6-2 triumph over the St. Louis Blues.

Captain Brenden Morrow, Jussi Jokinen and Jere Lehtinen also scored for the Pacific Division-leading Stars, who have won nine of their last 11 games.

"Scoring by committee is how we play, and it makes us a hard team to play against," Stars coach Dave Tippett said.

"We find ways to win," Dallas' Mike Modano added. "Checking and defending has been our forte. We're trying to create (our opportunities) as much as we can."

Jay McClement and Jamal Mayers netted second-period goals for the reeling Blues, who have lost 10 of their last 12 contests.

Despite St. Louis' troubles, coach Andy Murray refused to get down on his team.

"You don't play the blame game," Murray said. "There's a lot more going on in life than a hockey game."

Morrow opened the scoring with a power-play goal just 5:02 into the game. A first-round pick in 1997, Morrow blasted a sharp-angle shot that handcuffed goaltender Hannu Toivonen for his 24th goal of the season and eighth in his last 10 games.

Jokinen doubled the advantage just 2:11 into the second period, wristing the puck from the high slot past a screened Toivonen and inside the left goalpost for his 13th tally.

Ribeiro gave the Stars a three-goal bulge by blasting a one-timer from the right faceoff circle over the left shoulder of Toivonen 5 1/2 minutes into the session.

"You don't want to let teams have hope when you get up 3-0," Ribeiro said. "You want to finish them off, and we did that."

But McClement got the Blues on the scoreboard by skating out in front of the net and beating netminder Mike Smith for his sixth goal of the season.

Miettinen regained Dallas' three-goal advantage just under 2 1/2 minutes later - and drove Toivonen from the game in the process. Miettinen fired a wrist shot from the top of the slot past the Finnish goalie for his 11th of the season.

"It's nice to score goals, and I try to score as many as I can," Miettinen said. "The best thing is getting the win and keeping this run going."

"Miettinen has great skills and a great shot," Ribeiro said. "He works so hard and brings so many good things offensively."

After stopping just 11 of the 15 shots he faced, Toivonen gave way to All-Star Manny Legace, who yielded two goals on eight shots.

"Manny had the flu, we didn't want to play him," Murray said. "Manny was sick and we wanted him to have time to recover."

Mayers cut the deficit to 4-2 with an unassisted goal from the high slot with 1:59 left in the second period.

But after Lehtinen made it 5-2 just 3:03 into the third period, Miettinen capped the scoring by wristing a shot from the right circle past Legace for his career-high 12th goal.

"If you bury yourself, you'll be (on the bench) for weeks. You have to be able to pop back up," Legace said. "It's the great thing about hockey - you get to redeem yourself tomorrow."

The offensive outburst was more than enough for Smith, who was making his second consecutive start with Marty Turco sidelined with a sore neck. Smith finished with 27 saves.

"It was nice to see six go on the board, so hats off to the boys," Smith said. "Tonight, we had a good third and kept fighting."