Roope Hintz, Mikko Rantanen and Matt Duchene each collected one goal and one assist to lead the visiting Dallas Stars to a 5-2 victory over the Calgary Flames on Thursday.
Wyatt Johnston and Mikael Granlund also scored for the Stars (47-21-4, 98 points), who are riding a four-game winning streak and sit four points behind the Winnipeg Jets for top spot in the Central Division and Western Conference. Both teams have 10 games remaining.
Stars goaltender Casey DeSmith made a season-high 46 saves.
Nazem Kadri scored both goals for the Flames, who had a four-game winning streak snapped. Dustin Wolf stopped 14 shots.
Calgary (34-26-11, 79 points) is six points back of the St. Louis Blues in the chase for the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot. The Flames do have three games in hand.
Despite Calgary owning the early momentum, Hintz opened the scoring at 7:09 of the first period when he gained the puck during a broken play and buried a shot from the slot.
After his team had two apparent goals disallowed, Kadri put the Flames on the board at 8:12 of the second period by working to the front of the net and lifting a sharp-angled shot.
However, the Stars pulled ahead with a pair of goals 76 seconds apart. Johnston restored the Dallas lead at 12:55 of the second period when he drove to the net and converted his own rebound.
Granlund then made it a 3-1 game with a tap-in tally set up Mason Marchment as the Flames defenders floundered in their coverage.
Kadri provided his team a huge spark 16 seconds into the third period with a power-play goal. A shot from the right faceoff dot resulted in his 30th goal of the season and seventh goal in a five-game streak.
The Flames pushed for the equalizer — outshooting the Stars 15-0 to start the third period — but Rantanen tapped home a rebound at 13:22 to restore Dallas’ two-goal lead.
Duchene’s empty-net goal with 1:49 remaining sealed the result.
Flames forward Connor Zary left the game midway through the third period after Rantanen tripped and fell into him. Zary, who was in obvious pain, missed 15 games due to a knee injury sustained on Jan. 7.
