Lukas Dostal made 24 saves as the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Dallas Stars 3-1 at Honda Center on Tuesday, ending a nine-game losing streak. The Ducks, who had not won since December 20, improved their record to 22-21-3 with the victory.
Chris Kreider, Beckett Sennecke, and Jacob Trouba scored for Anaheim. During their recent skid, the Ducks had gone 0-8-1 and allowed at least five goals in each of their previous five games and seven of their last eight.
Anaheim played without Leo Carlsson due to a lower-body injury, Cutter Gauthier because of illness, and Troy Terry who missed his third consecutive game with an upper-body injury. All three players participated in the morning skate on Tuesday.
For Dallas, Roope Hintz scored and Casey DeSmith made 22 saves. The Stars (27-11-9) were coming off a win against the Los Angeles Kings that extended their point streak to three games (2-0-1). Dallas was also missing defenseman Miro Heiskanen for the first time this season due to a personal matter.
The game saw several penalties early in the second period. The Stars called a timeout before starting a brief two-man advantage but lost it when Jason Robertson was penalized for hooking four seconds later. While both teams skated four-on-four, another penalty against Dallas gave Anaheim an opportunity with an extra attacker. Chris Kreider then opened scoring at 3:36 of the second period after receiving a pass from Mikael Granlund and shooting from above the right hash marks.
Beckett Sennecke increased Anaheim’s lead to 2-0 at 12:03 of the third period by recovering a loose puck behind Dallas’ net and scoring on a backhand while falling down.
Roope Hintz narrowed the gap to 2-1 at 17:48 with DeSmith pulled for an extra skater, scoring on a one-timer from inside the right circle. Jacob Trouba sealed Anaheim’s win by scoring into an empty net with 21 seconds remaining.
