Stars rally past Ottawa, 5-4 Duchene caps Dallas rally with winner in third

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In Dallas, the visiting Ottawa Senators came fast in the first period on Friday to take a 2-0 lead on the Stars, and 3-2 lead into the middle frame.

Dallas replied with a better final 30 minutes of play and downed the Sens, 5-4.

The Stars trailed 4-2 in the middle frame, but rallied back with Matt Duchene hitting for the game-winner at 8:17 of the third period.

“We don’t want to give up that many goals, but fortunately they did too, I guess,” Duchene said. “Coming out in the third like that, that’s the type of team we can be. We’ve just got to maybe demand that more. It’s got to be more consistent.

“We know how good a team we are. We know we can win any game that we are in. That’s a privilege. We’ve just got to make sure we’re ready to go for each period and play more complete games.”

Jake Oettinger got the start for Dallas, but left the ice with an apparent injury.  He surrendered the first two goals to the Sens, on their their fist two shots of the game.

Scott Wedgewood made 25 saves the rest of the way for the win.

“Just a tough situation and what they pay me for, I guess,” Wedgewood said. “Wish my skates would be a little tighter, my gear a little wetter from warmups, and stuff like that. But you get in there. Unfortunately they get another one right there after we woke ourselves up. Challenged me to get my mind in the game. The rest of the 40-plus minutes of the game, I felt like I got into my hockey game and we came away with a win. Not going to draw them up like that, but we’ll take them.”

The Stars moved to 17-8-3.

“Early in the game, no time to prepare, and [Wedgewood] was great,” Duchene said. “He’s going to potentially have to carry the mail here for us, and we have all the confidence in him. That’s why the backup goalie position is so important in this league now. Wish ‘Otter’ well, hopefully he’s back really soon.”

On their first two shots, Ottawa quieted the Dallas crowd with a 2-0 lead.

Travis Hamonic scored with 76 seconds gone in the game for a1-0 lead, and Drake Batherson scored the first of his double on the night at 2:51.

“That was a tough game,” Batherson said. “We had the start we wanted to. We get the lead after two, and they get a few bounces there to take the lead. We played 10 forwards most of the game there, which was tough on the back-to-back. Good on the guys for battling. Just a bounce away.”

Joe Pavelski replied for the Stars with a power play strike at 11:46 of the first to trim the deficit to 2-1.

“Gutsy win by us,” Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. “Over 82 games, you’re not going to have all perfect games. But there were different opportunities in that game where we could have lost that game 6-2. We kept battling back, fighting back. It showed a lot of guts, a lot of character for two really important points here.”

Josh Norris scored at 13:20 of the first to push the Sens back in front by two at 3-1.

That two-goal advantage lasted all of 10 seconds when Esa Lindell narrowed the gap to 3-2 for the Stars.

Batherson hit for his double at 4:54 of the middle frame for the 4-2 lead.

From there, the Stars wrested control of the game away  from Ottawa and scored three straight.

“That was a lot better 60 minutes by us as a group,” Ottawa’s Jakob Chychrun said. “Boys worked hard. [Played with] 10 forwards (after two left because of injury), second night of a back-to-back, and guys are competing out to the end. It’s one of the ones that just stings a bit, but we’ve got to continue to play that way and continue to push for better results.”

Ottawa dropped to 11-14-0 off their third straight loss.

“We deserved a lot better than that,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “The effort, the commitment was there for sure on a back-to-back. You want to get out of here with a win. It’s a tough one to lose tonight. I thought the effort was so good.”

The Dallas rally started in the middle frame when Thomas Harley hit at 11:21 to claw the Stars back to within one at 4-3 headed to the third period.

The Stars rally continued in the third period on a marker from Miro Heiskanen at 7:33.

Anton Forsberg made 19 saves in the loss.