VANCOUVER — Alex Radulov scored the go-ahead goal late in the third period as the Dallas Stars edged the Vancouver Canucks 2-1 at Rogers Arena on Saturday.
Jamie Benn also scored midway through the third for the Stars (14-10-3), who are fifth in the Central Division and currently own the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot.
Ben Bishop made 24 saves in his first start since returning from a lower-body injury that kept him sidelined for five games.
Bo Horvat scored for the struggling Canucks (11-15-3), who have only one win in their past 12 games.
Anders Nilsson made 25 saves for the Canucks.
Radulov’s winner came with just 3:23 left in the game. Benn found the Russian winger skating in alone in the slot and Radulov made no error as he backhanded it in to quiet the crowd.
Nilsson was impressive in the first. He faced only six shots, but made several strong saves, including a jaw-dropping glove grab to deny Dallas forward Tyler Seguin.
The Canucks got on the board with just over four minutes to play in the first. Winger Antoine Roussel, a former Star, broke away along the wing and lobbed a rolling puck to Horvat, who got enough stick on it to beat Bishop.
Bishop was solid at the other end in the second when he stopped Brock Boeser all alone on a breakaway. Nilsson did the same to Blake Comeau with a nice glove save. The Canucks netminder faced the Stars’ power play in the final two minutes of the second, but preserved the one-goal lead.
Seguin and Benn, doing most of the offensive work with seven of the Stars’ 17 shots through two periods, swarmed Nilsson early in the third. But a Jason Spezza tripping penalty put Dallas on the defensive, forcing the Stars to kill Vancouver’s fourth power play of the game.
Benn finally tied it 1-1 at 10:19 of the third. After a Miro Heiskanen shot from the point bounced through traffic at the net, Benn swooped around the back of the net and banged in the loose puck at the side.
Jason Keller, The Canadian Press
