.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
Daley, Horcoff goals in second carry Stars past Devils
Trevor Daley admitted he had a "here we go again" feeling during the second period on Saturday night.
The Dallas Stars' defenseman had seen his team lose leads and then lose games, including five in overtime at home this season. But after the New Jersey Devils tied Saturday's game after trailing by two goals, Daley did something about it.
Daley and Shawn Horcoff scored late in the second period to help the Stars recover and beat the Devils 4-3.
"Definitely," Daley said of having bad feelings about a repeat. "That seemed to be the way it's been going, but we feel if we work hard, we're going to get results.
"Tonight was one of those games."
Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza each had a goal and an assist in the first period for the Stars, and Kari Lehtonen finished with 28 saves.
Jon Merrill, Eric Gelinas and Scott Gomez scored for the Devils.
Cory Schneider stopped 29 of the 33 shots he faced through two periods. Keith Kinkaid replaced Schneider to start the third and finished with three saves before being pulled for a sixth skater.
"I didn't blame (Schneider) for us being in the hole we were in," Devils coach Peter DeBoer said. "That wasn't the reason."
Merrill and Gelinas scored 3:20 apart to tie the score at 2-all at 7:46 of the second period.
Daley got the tiebreaker with 5:05 left in the period and Horcoff restored the two-goal lead less than 2 minutes later.
The Devils pulled to 4-3 when Gomez put in a rebound with 1:07 remaining in the third with a sixth skater on the ice.
"We pushed to the end," DeBoer said. "It wasn't enough."
The Devils outshot Dallas 11-3 in the third period, and kept the pressure on in the Stars' end until the game ended.
Horcoff said, "I told (Spezza), `That's one way to do it. Just drop down on two knees, cover (the puck) and hang on.' A lot of times, that's the best place for it to be, is under that pile."
Dallas took a 1-0 lead on Seguin's NHL-leading 23rd goal with 5:31 to go in the first. Erik Cole sent an easy pass into the top of the slot, and Seguin one-timed the puck past Schneider. The goal was Seguin's fifth in the last four games and 16th in the last 16.
Seguin assisted 2 1/2 minutes later as Spezza tried to put the puck into the right side of the net, retrieved it and attempted a wraparound shot from the left side, and then got the puck back and lifted it into the upper left corner.
"I thought we really dominated, even after 40 minutes, the possession, the shot, the chances," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "I thought we skated really well."
NOTES: Stars LW Ryan Garbutt sat out the first game of his three-game suspension for slew-footing Winnipeg's Dustin Byfuglien. ... LW Travis Moen (upper-body injury) did not dress. . C Travis Morin, 30, played in only his eighth NHL game. Dallas recalled him Thursday from the AHL, where he was leading Texas with 24 points. . New Jersey LW Mike Cammalleri (lower-body injury) left early in the second period, and didn't return. ... Gomez was a rookie with the Devils when they defeated the Stars in the 2000 Stanley Cup finals. ... The PA announcer saluted New Jersey RW Jaromir Jagr, a former Stars player, for moving into fifth place on the NHL's career scoring list. . Steve Bernier's assist on Gelinas' goal was his 200th career point. ... Daley's goal was the first of his 11-year career against the Devils.
