Benn scores twice in 3rd, Stars beat Jets to end 3-game skid
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) - Jamie Benn scored twice in the third period Tuesday night. It was another late goal that the Dallas Stars were talking about, though.
Benn got his 31st and 32nd goals of the season after Colton Sceviour scored a go-ahead goal in the Stars' 5-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets.
Dallas scored three times in the final period to end a three-game skid. Sceviour put Dallas up 3-2 12:29 into the third on a goal awarded after a video review showed the puck bounced off the in-net camera before ricocheting out.
"I thought the horn went off by accident," Sceviour said. "All of us were kind of looking at each other, we had good possession, kind of trying to figure out what happened. And we came to the bench and they told us it went in. I was more shocked than anything."
Benn put the Stars up 4-2 before Mark Scheifele pulled the Jets within one a few moments later. Benn sealed it with an empty-netter with 15 seconds left in the third.
Dallas also got goals from Jason Spezza and Valeri Nichushkin. John Klingberg had three assists. Antti Niemi made 22 saves.
"We have a confident habit," Klingberg said. "If we just stick to our game plan, we will win the game."
Mark Scheifele scored in the third period for Winnipeg, and Alexander Burmistrov and Andrew Ladd also scored. Ondrej Pavelec made 22 saves, and the Jets lost their fourth straight.
Ladd is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and has been the target of rumors involving his departure as the NHL's trade deadline approaches on Feb. 29. He got some extra appreciation from the fans after his goal.
"I guess it's different for me because nothing is set in stone and you don't know what's going on," Ladd said. "You're still out there trying to play a hockey game but, obviously, appreciate the ovation after the goal."
The Stars' seventh-ranked power play went to work early in the first period and produced a result just 7 seconds into Paul Postma's interference minor. Tyler Seguin directed a low shot on goal, but the puck caromed off the skate of Dustin Byfuglien and onto the stick of Spezza, who fired his 19th past Pavelec for the 1-0 lead at 7:15.
The Jets tied the game with their first shot on goal of the second period. Drew Stafford's initial shot was blocked in front of Niemi, but the puck squirted onto Burmistrov's stick, and he shoveled a backhand shot to tie the game at 3:28. The assist was the 200th of Stafford's career.
Dallas restored their lead at 8:14 when Nichushkin wired home a shot from in close after picking up his own rebound.
A pair of 2-on-1 rushes by the Jets while short-handed resulted in the tying goal late in the second.
The Stars thwarted the first rush from Byfuglien and Joel Armia thanks to an impressive stick check by Klingberg. But 20 seconds later the Jets were back, this time with Byfuglien, who fed Ladd in front to make it 2-2 at 16:14.
"We made some mistakes that we won't ... that we will grow out of," Jets coach Paul Maurice said. "We turned some pucks over that ended up in our net that we didn't need to."
NOTES: The Jets and Stars complete their long-distance home-and-home with a game at Dallas on Thursday night.
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This story has been corrected to show that Jamie Benn has 32 goals this season.