The Dallas Stars have now won three in a row as they defeated the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 on Monday night. However, the Sabres would not go down without a fight.
Scoreless the first 13:39 of the game, Brian Gionta finally scored as he put his eighth goal of the season past Kari Lehtonen to give Buffalo a 1-0 lead. Marcus Folingo and Mikhail Grigorenko assisted. Before the first was over, Jamie Benn scored the first of his two goals as the captain scored with just 29 seconds left, assisted by Patrick Eaves and Patrik Nemeth for his 25th of the year.
Buffalo got back in front with a power play goal from Gionta, assisted by Matt Moulson and Johan Larsson, and would go into the third with a 2-1 lead, 20 minutes from getting a season sweep of the Stars.
But in the third, Benn scored his second goal of the game just 1:56 into the period on a power play. Alex Goligoski assisted on the goal. For almost nine minutes the game remained tied at two, then Moulson broke the tie as he gave the Sabres a 3-2 lead on his 12th goal of the season, assisted by Tyler Ennis. But not much more than a minute and a half later Eaves scored for the Stars, netting his tenth goal of the year, assisted by Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn. Tied at three for another four plus minutes, Cody Eakin scored the game winning goal with just over three minutes remaining to give the Stars a 4-3 advantage on his 17th goal of the year, assisted by John Klingberg and Ales Hemsky.
Both goaltenders struggled in this game. Anders Lindback was Lehtonen’s backup to start the year before a mid-season trade sent him north to Buffalo. Lindback faced 39 shots, stopping 35 of them. Lehtonen faced just 28, stopping 25. In addition to outshooting the Sabres the Stars also dominated in the face off circle, winning 40 of 65.
This win gave the Stars another two points, but no ground in the playoff race. A five game winning streak by the Winnipeg Jets has them at 88 points, eight ahead of the Stars for the second wild card spot. The Minnesota Wild and Los Angeles Kings also won tonight, so Dallas for the moment is ahead of the Avalanche and Sharks in 10th place in the west, still a long shot to make the postseason, despite an 8-2 record in their last 10 games. These three home wins are somewhat surprising considering how much Dallas has struggled on their home ice this season. They entered this three game stretch 13-14-8 at home, but are now above .500 for the year at the American Airlines Center.
Dallas continues their uphill climb toward the playoffs on Wednesday night as they go to Calgary to take on the Flames. The Flames are also in the playoff mix at 86 points, third in the Pacific division but just two points ahead of the Kings, while LA also has a game in hand.
Buffalo will be back in action this Thursday night at home as they take on the Arizona Coyotes, who have lost eight in a row and are giving the Sabres a run for their money in the tank for Connor McDavid sweepstakes. Buffalo still has the fewest points in the league with 47 but Arizona is not far behind at 50. This game could have an important impact on draft position.