Gurianov To The Rescue, Forward Ends Drought, Lifts Stars Over Ducks 2-1
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — Denis Gurianov ended an 11-month goal drought with two against Anaheim.
His first-period goals held up and the Dallas Stars beat the Ducks 2-1 on Thursday night. Gurianov hadn't scored in 26 games since his first NHL goal on November 18, 2018.
His first goal came 2:42 into the game on the Stars' first shot. He skated into the right faceoff circle and lifted a backhand over the left shoulder of John Gibson.
"I scored on my first shot in the first shift and I found my game right away," Gurianov said.
He said he found his game after being sent to Texas of the AHL. He had a hat trick on Oct. 11, and the Stars recalled him five days later.
"Some ice time, power play, penalty kill, and I played a couple games, scored a couple goals there and just had to find my game."
For the second goal, he skated past the puck at the blue line, recovered and slid another backhand along the ice at 17:37.
"I tried to shoot high glove, but I got 5-hole," Gurianov said.
Dallas won its third straight game.
Max Comtois scored his first goal of the season in the second period for the Ducks, who have lost three in a row.
Stars goalie Ben Bishop made 29 saves. He held off Anaheim for the last 2:15 after the Ducks pulled Gibson for a sixth skater. Gibson stopped 27 shots.
"We've got a great goalie, and he made some great saves tonight at key moments," Dallas coach Jim Montgomery said. "We wouldn't like to have to rely on him the last two minutes as much as we did, but that's part of the team."
Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf noted a frustrating finish for Anaheim.
"We did everything that we wanted to do except score. Their goalie played well and got his big body in front of pucks. We just got to get hungrier and hungrier around their net."
Midway through the first period, the Ducks killed a 5-on-3 power play.
The Stars outshot Anaheim 10-8 and won 74 percent of the faceoffs (17 for 23) in the first.
Anaheim pulled within 2-1 on a power-play goal by Comtois at 4:31 of the second period. The puck came to him in front of the goal with Bishop out of position to the left of the net. Comtois settled the puck from a skate to his stick for his third career goal.
It was only the second Anaheim goal in 27 power plays this season.
The goalies took over in the scoreless third period. Gibson made a glove save on Tyler Seguin and a breakaway by Radek Faksa, sent in by Mattias Janmark. Bishop stopped two shots from the blue line by Cam Fowler.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
