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Turco, Stars shut out Thrashers

Jan 28, 2009 - 5:35 AM By John Tranchina PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

DALLAS (Ticker) -- The Dallas Stars are making their move.

Steve Ott collected a goal and an assist and Marty Turco made 25 saves to lead the Stars to a 2-0 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers on Tuesday.

In each team's first game following the All-Star break, Dallas picked up where it left off in a 4-1 win over Florida last Wednesday, dominating their second straight Eastern Conference foe.

The Stars, who struggled to the worst record in the West for much of the first two months of the season, are now 8-1-1 in their last 10 home games and 4-1-2 in their last seven overall.

They have inched within two points of the eighth and final playoff spot in the conference with their recent surge.

Jere Lehtinen also scored and center Mike Ribeiro chipped in with two assists for Dallas.

"Points become so very valuable, and this was a home game that we had to win," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "You put those two points in the bank and move on from there. Ribeiro is skating very well. Ott and (Lehtinen) are workaholics. But (Ribeiro) is playing a very solid game right now and getting some points."

"Anytime you play with someone like (Ribeiro) and a three-time Selke winner (in Lehtinen), good things are going to happen," Ott said of his skilled linemates. "Hard work has gotten us a lot of scoring chances, and we're capitalizing on them. We've got to be hard to play against and push that record and push for a playoff spot."

Turco had to make outstanding stops on Eric Perrin and Bryan Little in the final 10 seconds to preserve his second shutout of the season and 35th career. In making six saves in each of the first two periods and 13 in the third, he improved to 6-0-0 lifetime against Atlanta, the only NHL club against which he never has lost.

"You're always striving for shutouts," said Turco, whose first blanking this season came in a 1-0 shootout loss at Phoenix on January 10. "The guys played awesome tonight. It was the first time I got a shutout this year and got the win. If we can play like this, good things will happen.

"I don't know if we have the Eastern's number, but they seemed a little flat tonight, and we took advantage of it. We're tough to play against when we play like that, no matter what conference you're in."

The Thrashers have lost two straight following a three-game winning streak.

"You can't just have one guy going," Atlanta coach John Anderson said. "We're not so blessed with talent that we can have five or six guys take nights off."

Despite the loss, Kari Lehtonen was strong in goal, making 31 saves - including several spectacular stops to keep his team in the game. He denied Ott on a breakaway chance with 4:07 left in the third period.

"I don't think we were awake the first two periods," Lehtonen said.

"I thought their goaltender made some unbelievable saves to keep them in the game," Tippett said. "But Marty was big when we needed him."

Dallas jumped to an early lead as Lehtinen scored his third goal of the season just 3:48 into the contest. Lehtonen made an easy save on Ribeiro's weak shot from low in the left faceoff circle, but the puck ricocheted up off Lehtonen's stick and appeared to bounce off Lehtinen's chest as he cruised by the crease.

"He's a strong man with a big chest," Lehtonen said of his fellow Finn. "It was just lucky, I guess."

After a video review, it was confirmed that the puck did not go in off one of Lehtinen's hands, giving the Stars a 1-0 edge.

"I threw the puck toward the net and Jere made a great play on it," Ribeiro said. "We had a lot of chances, we put a lot of pressure on them and we created some good momentum for ourselves."

Dallas doubled the lead just 28 seconds into the middle period on Ott's sixth goal. With a delayed penalty about to be called on Atlanta, the Stars executed a nice tic-tac-toe passing play that concluded with Ribeiro feeding Ott for an easy tap-in.