Stars roll past Islanders, Lehtonen clinches 300th win
NEW YORK (AP) - Tyler Pitlick scored twice and Jamie Benn had a goal and two assists to lead the Dallas Stars to a 5-2 victory over the New York Islanders on Wednesday night.
Alexander Radulov and Remi Elie also scored for the Stars, who won their second straight after a three-game skid. Kari Lehtonen stopped 32 shots for his 300th career victory, and John Klingberg had two assists.
Anders Lee scored twice for the Islanders, who have lost five of seven (2-4-1), and John Tavares and Josh Bailey each had two assists. Jaroslav Halak, starting for the seventh time in nine games, was pulled near the midpoint of the second period after giving up four goals on 20 shots. Thomas Greiss came on and stopped six of the seven shots he faced.
Leading 2-0 after one period, the Stars added to their lead 1:01 into the second. Devin Shore got a pass from Klingberg and fired a shot from the right side that Halak stopped. However, the rebound went in front and Elie fired it in before the Islanders' goalie could recover for his fourth.
Benn made it 4-0 at 9:21 as he brought the puck up the left side, paused briefly above the left circle and fired a shot past Halak for his 13th.
Greiss came on to replace Halak after that.
Josh Bailey hit the inside of the right goalpost with 9 1/2 minutes remaining in the second for the Islanders, and Casey Cizikas also hit a post about three minutes later.
Pitlick made it 5-0 with his second of the night and fifth of the season just 21 seconds into the third, deflecting a point shot by Klingberg past Greiss. Benn had an assist on the play, giving him two goals and three assists in his last three games.
Lee put in a deflection 45 seconds later to get New York on the scoreboard, and made it 5-2 with his 19th with 4 1/2 minutes remaining.
Both teams had chances in the opening period, in which the Islanders outshot the Stars 15-14.
Halak denied a tip-in by Brett Ritche about 2 1/2 minutes in and made a right pad save on a shot by Radulov less than two minutes later.
Lehtonen had a pad save on Calvin de Haan 30 seconds earlier.
The Stars took a 1-0 lead at 7:37 as Dan Hamhuis fired a shot from above circle that bounced off the end boards and came right to Pitlick, who put it in from the left side for his fourth of the season.
Jordan Eberle fired a shot that Lehtonen knocked down and smothered with about 8 minutes left. The Stars' goalie also denied Andrew Ladd's attempt on a rebound in front less than a minute later and a deflection by Tavares in close with a little more than five minutes to go.
Radulov made it 2-0 with 4:14 remaining in the first, firing it past Halak from outside the right circle in front of the side boards for his 10th.
NOTES: Dallas improved to 15-3-0 when scoring first and 14-1-1 when leading after two periods. ... Stars F Martin Hanzal returned after missing five games with a hamstring injury. Dallas was without F Antoine Roussel for a second straight game because of an injured elbow and D Marc Methot for the 16th consecutive game with an injured knee. ... Dallas, which beat New York 5-0 at home on Nov. 10, completed a sweep of the two-game season series. ... Tavares now has 318 assists for his career, moving him past Stefan Persson into eighth place on the franchise list. ... New York lost in regulation at home for just the second time this season, falling to 9-2-2 at Barclays Center. ... New York D Johnny Boychuk returned to the lineup after missing three games with a lower-body injury.
UP NEXT:
Stars: At New Jersey in the third of a four-game trip.
Islanders: At Columbus on Thursday night before returning for a five-game homestand.
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