DALLAS (AP) — Defenseman Miro Heiskanen ended a 19-game goal drought by scoring the winning goal early in the third period and Tyler Seguin had two goals and an assist as the Dallas Stars rallied from a two-goal first-period deficit to beat the Arizona Coyotes 4-2 on Wednesday night.
Roope Hintz also scored for the Stars, who will complete a back-to-back at Chicago on Thursday. Jake Oettinger made 18 saves for his 25th win, tied for sixth place in the NHL.
The Stars lead the Central Division by three points but struggled recently against lesser teams, losing at home to Vancouver, Columbus and Chicago. They went 1-3-3 in their previous seven games and went in 1-7-4 in games in which they trailed after one period.
“It’s been muck,” Seguin said. “Sometimes you can call it bad bounces. Sometimes you can call it hot goalies. We said, ‘Let’s not leave here saying we hit a hot goalie or that we deserved to win.’”
Clayton Keller and Barrett Hayton scored for the Coyotes, who finished a back-to-back after beating Chicago at home on Tuesday night. Connor Ingram stopped 37 shots. Ingram, a rookie, has faced at least 40 shots in eight of his 21 starts.
Heiskanen fired a wrist shot from the left point that trickled through Ingram at 4:38 of the third period for his first goal since Jan. 8.
“One lucky bounce, and it’s an important goal,” Heiskanen said.
Seguin scored a power-play goal early in the second period and a shorthanded insurance goal with 3:48 to play.
The Coyotes broke out to a 2-0 lead 14 minutes in with Juuso Valimaki assisting on both goals. Keller’s goal, his team-leading 25th of the season, came on the lone shot on goal on three first-period Arizona power plays when he faked a one-timer in the slot and sent a wrist shot past Oettinger – his teammate at Boston University in 2016-17.
The Stars pulled even with goals in the last two minutes of the first period from Hintz and in the first two minutes of the second period from Seguin.
LITTLE HELP, PLEASE
The Coyotes traded two defensemen earlier Wednesday – Shayne Gostisbehere to Carolina and Jakob Chychrun to Ottawa – and made forward Nick Bjugstad a healthy scratch for trade-related reasons for the second consecutive game. They then lost forward Nick Schmaltz, second on the team with 42 points, midway through the second period when a slapshot by Dallas’ Jani Hakanpaa rode up Schmaltz’s stick and struck him near his left ear.
NOTES
Keller has a season-long six-game point streak. … Stars forward Mason Marchment took two first-period penalties giving him 78 penalty minutes this season, moving into the league’s top 10. … Dallas forward Evgenii Dadonov had an assist after recording a goal on Monday in his Stars debut following Sunday’s trade from Montreal. … Both of Valimaki’s multipoint games this season have come in the last nine games. … The Coyotes lead the NHL with 21 road losses.
UP NEXT
Coyotes: Begin a four-game homestand on Friday night against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Stars: Visit the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday. They’ve split two previous games with the Blackhawks and are 2-4-0 this season closing back-to-backs.
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