Ducks Earn 7th Straight Victory With 6-3 Win Over Stars
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Emerson Etem got his first career short-handed goal late in the second period after Corey Perry scored twice to tie the game, and the Anaheim Ducks extended the best start in franchise history with a 6-3 victory over the Dallas Stars on Sunday.
The defending Pacific Division champions have won seven straight following a 6-1 loss at Colorado on opening night, tying the longest streak in club history. Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and three assists, and Teemu Selanne extended his goal streak to three games.
Ryan Garbutt, Brenden Dillon and Shawn Horcoff scored during the final 10 minutes of the first period for Dallas. Jack Campbell made 41 saves in his NHL debut.
Anaheim goalie Frederik Andersen also made his NHL debut in net, replacing Jonas Hiller at the start of the second with a 3-1 deficit. Andersen stopped all 24 shots he faced, two days after he was promoted from Norfolk of the AHL because of Viktor Fasth's lower-body injury.
The Ducks responded to the change just 54 seconds after the intermission, when Perry scored on a redirection of Getzlaf's centering pass. Perry, who won the Hart Trophy as the league's MVP in 2010-11 after scoring a career-high 50 goals, got the equalizer at 11:48 of the second on a deflection of defenseman Cam Fowler's long wrist shot while Horcoff was serving a hooking penalty.
The Ducks were killing off an elbowing penalty against Daniel Winnik when Andrew Cogliano set up Etem in the low slot at 18:55 of the second with a pass from the right boards. Getzlaf and Mathieu Perreault helped put it away with third-period goals.
The Ducks, who came in a league-worst 1 for 23 on the power play and 0 for 18 at home, opened the scoring the first time they had the man advantage. Garbutt was serving a penalty for kneeing Perreault in the neutral zone when the 43-year-old Selanne scored his 678th career goal and third this season at 2:38 of the first.
Dallas came back with three unanswered goals before the end of the period. Selanne was knocked off the puck in the Dallas end and Garbutt banged it off the boards to himself near the blue line as Ducks defenseman Sami Vatanen got caught up ice. Garbutt then carried into the Anaheim zone before beating Hiller with a short wrist shot that just made it under the crossbar.
Dillon put Dallas ahead 2-1 at 14:38, scoring on a one-timer from the left point that glanced off the left skate of Anaheim defenseman Francois Beauchemin and past Hiller. The Stars scored again at 18:55, when Erik Cole one-timed Jamie Benn's pass to him in the low slot and the puck banked off Horcoff's body and past Hiller's left leg while Dustin Penner was off for roughing.
Hiller, who was off to the best start of his seven-year career with a 4-0 record and 1.44 goals-against average, faced 12 shots before he was benched.
Penner was knocked out briefly at 5:32 of the second period after absorbing a hard open-ice hit from Garbutt a split-second after passing the puck in the Dallas zone. Penner was helped to the dressing room, but checked out OK.
It was the first meeting between the longtime division rivals since the offseason realignment that reduced the league from six to four divisions and put the Stars in the Central Division.
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