Jamie Benn scored twice, including the game-winner with 23 seconds left, as the Dallas Stars edged the St. Louis Blues 5-4 on Wednesday night. The victory marked Dallas' sixth consecutive win and seventh in eight games heading into the Olympic break. St. Louis fought back from a two-goal deficit but suffered its eighth loss in nine outings.
The Dallas Stars overcame a late Blues rally to defeat St. Louis 5-4 at American Airlines Center, extending their winning streak to six games. Entering the Olympic break on a high note, Dallas improved to 34-14-9, while the Blues dropped to 20-28-9 with just one win in their last nine (1-7-1).
Pavel Buchnevich opened the scoring for St. Louis at 7:29 of the first period on a power-play one-timer from the left face-off circle, giving the Blues a 1-0 lead. Jason Robertson tied it 1-1 at 11:37 with his 200th NHL goal, a wrist shot from a sharp angle off a cross-ice pass from Mikko Rantanen. Robertson reached the milestone in 431 games, the second-fastest in franchise history behind Dino Ciccarelli's 381.
Jordan Kyrou restored the Blues' advantage at 18:33, scoring from the right face-off circle to make it 2-1. In the second period, Matt Duchene evened it at 2-2 just 1:56 in on a power-play rebound. Mavrik Bourque put Dallas ahead 3-2 at 3:58, capitalizing on a Robertson rebound, and Benn extended the lead to 4-2 at 11:57 with a wrist shot from the left circle.
St. Louis mounted a comeback in the third. Jimmy Snuggerud cut it to 4-3 at 11:05 with a shot through traffic from the high slot. Alexey Toropchenko tied the game at 4-4 at 15:31 on a no-look backhand pass from Philip Broberg. But Benn sealed the win at 19:37, finishing a cross-ice pass from Miro Heiskanen to beat Jordan Binnington from the right dot.
Jake Oettinger made 14 saves for Dallas, while Binnington stopped 23. All six of Dallas' streak wins have been by one goal. "We don’t want to be giving up goals late in the third, but finding ways to win these is big," Benn said. Blues coach Jim Montgomery noted, "The third period we came out with a spirited effort... but we made a real bad mistake at the end." This marked the third straight loss for St. Louis against Dallas in the final minute.
