RALEIGH, N.C. – The Carolina Hurricanes hosted one of the National Hockey League’s (NHL) hottest offensive teams in the Dallas Stars at PNC Arena on Friday.
While Jordan Staal scored and goalkeeper Eddie Lack made 25 saves, defensive lapses in the third period contributed to Carolina (5-8) suffering at 4-1 loss to Dallas, its second in as many games.
Lack was the reason the Hurricanes stayed close to the Stars throughout the first period.
Both teams remained scoreless after 20 minutes, even while Dallas (11-3) outshot Carolina 13-6.
At the other end, Dallas netminder Kari Lehtonen did the same and more as he stopped all but one of the 31 shots he faced to earn the win.
Staal placed the only blemish on Lehtonen’s performance when he scored his second goal of the season and put Carolina ahead 1-0 at 3:41 in the second period.
After defenseman Ron Hainsey’s point shot deflected off the kick plate behind the Dallas net, brother Eric swept the puck from the goal line to Lehtonen’s left and into the bottom slot where Jordan redirected it into the net.
Dallas tied it up six minutes later as Lack’s initial save drew him out of his crease and allowed Ales Hemsky to place an uncontested rebound attempt into the net.
Both teams remained tied 1-1 by the second intermission.
Patrick Sharp gave Dallas the 2-1 lead with 8:45 left in the third when he finished a 2-on-1 initiated by Tyler Seguin, the Stars’ and league’s current points leader.
Carolina didn’t have much time to regroup as the Stars didn’t stop there.
Radek Faksa put away a pass from Colton Sceviour in front of Lack’s crease just over two minutes later, his first goal of the season, and extended Dallas’ lead to two goals.
Though the Hurricanes pulled Lack for the extra skater with just under two minutes to play with hopes of cutting into their deficit, the effort fell short.
Defenseman Jason Demers added an empty-net goal with one second remaining, and the Stars skated away with the 4-1 win, the fourth in their last five visits to Raleigh.
Carolina next prepares to host the Ottawa Senators on Saturday as part of their weekend back-to-back set at PNC Arena.
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Boxscore: Dallas 4, Carolina 1
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