Sharp's late power-play goal helps Stars beat Hurricanes 6-5
DALLAS (AP) Patrick Sharp showed why the Dallas Stars acquired him from the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks.
Sharp scored the game-winning goal on the power play with 19 seconds remaining after Dallas had blown a four-goal lead in the third period, and the Stars beat the Carolina Hurricanes 6-5 on Tuesday night.
Sharp took a pass from John Klingberg above the right faceoff circle and sent a slap shot off Carolina goalie Eddie Lack and into the net.
''(Sharp has) lived enough games that you don't play well but you win,'' Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. ''He's been in big games late. For some reason, those guys if they get a puck on their stick, they put it in.''
Sharp said it helped that the puck went in through traffic between him and the net.
''(Klingberg) kind of one-touched it back to me, and I knew I had to get it to net. It wasn't the best shot, but I got slashed as I was shooting and maybe that affected the goalie.''
Carolina coach Bill Peters had a different perspective.
''A shot on the ice through a guy, right?,'' he said. ''You either need a penalty killer or need a save, one or the other or you'd like both.''
The Hurricanes had neither.
Carolina had rallied with four third-period goals to tie the score with 6:43 remaining, and didn't get another shot on goal the rest of the way.
Dallas' Jamie Benn scored his league-leading 19th goal and added three assists. He combined with linemantes Tyler Seguin (goal, 3 assists) and Valeri Nichuskin (goal, 2 assists) for three goals and eight assists. Patrick Eaves and Johnny Oduya also scored, and Klingberg also had three assists.
Justin Faulk had two goals, and Jaccob Slavin, Phillip Di Giuseppe and Jeff Skinner also scored for Carolina. Victor Rask had three assists, and Noah Hanifin added two.
Lack, who stopped 10 shots, replaced Cam Ward after he gave up four goals on eight shots in the first period. Dallas' Antti Niemi took over for Kari Lehtonen after Skinner tied the score at 5-5. Lehtonen finished with 25 saves.
Faulk leads the NHL with 11 power-play goals - all 11 of his goals this season.
The Stars started slowly and didn't put a shot on goal until 6:49 of the first period, when Eaves scored his first goal of the season on a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle.
Benn increased Dallas' lead to 2-0 just 26 seconds later when he sent a wrist shot from the right circle past Ward.
Oduya sent a wrist shot from the high slot off a defender and into the net at 14:41. Just 17 seconds into the Stars' first power play, Seguin one-timed a pass from Klingberg for a 4-0 lead with 1:16 left in the first.
''We just capitalized on our chances early,'' Benn said, ''and then found a way to get a good (power-play) goal there at the end.
''They probably outplayed us most of the game. We sat back most of the game, just weren't skating. They were buzzing there.''
The Hurricanes knocked one goal off Dallas' lead when Slavin poked in the rebound of Riley Nash's shot at 3:10 of the second period.
The Stars restored their four-goal lead with 33 seconds left in the period. Nichushkin skated past two defenders and went in alone. His shot went off Lack toward the goal line. The original ruling was no goal, but a replay review showed that the puck trickled across the goal line.
NOTES: The Stars had blown four-goal leads in the third period only twice before in their 29 seasons in Dallas. The last was Nov. 10, 2007, at Los Angeles, when the Kings scored four times in just 3:13 and won 6-5 in overtime. ... In 10 career games against Carolina, Benn has 15 points (seven goals, eight assists). The Hurricanes' Eric Staal has played 14 games vs. Dallas, with 15 points (nine and six). ... Slavin, playing his ninth game, and Di Giuseppe his third, both scored their first goal of the season. ... The Stars were 0 for 11 on the power play during their four-game trip. ... Stars D Jason Demers (upper-body injury) missed his third straight game. ... Dallas swept both games of the season series by a combined score of 10-6.
