Stars Confidently Overtake Red Wings

A little patience paid big dividends for the Dallas Stars.

After the Red Wings controlled play for the first two periods, Scott Thornton and Aaron Gavey scored 45 seconds apart early in the third as the Stars stormed back for a 5-2 victory Wednesday night at Detroit.

“Patience is something we take pride in,” said Mike Modano, who had a goal and an assist during the period. “We write our keys down before the game, and we stick to them. More often than not, it helps us win.”

This was the seventh time the Stars have won when trailing after two periods.

“It’s been a real positive thing to know we can come from behind in the third, especially against a team like Detroit,” Modano said.

Brett Hull and Mike Keane also scored for Dallas.

Vyacheslav Kozlov and Brendan Shanahan scored for Detroit.

“We’re kind of like two personalities,” Shanahan said. “We had a good start, good middle, and bad finish. This is the second time in three games we’ve come out and had a disastrous third period.”

“I think this is huge,” Dallas Coach Ken Hitchcock said. “This builds a lot of confidence in this team.”

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Washington 3, Florida 2--Chris Simon scored a power-play goal 55 seconds into overtime to give the Capitals their 10th consecutive home victory.

Washington pulled within three points of the Panthers in the Southeast Division.

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Edmonton 4, Boston 2--Bill Guerin scored twice as the Oilers rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat the Bruins at Edmonton, Canada.

Ethan Moreau and Sean Brown also scored for the Oilers, who trailed 2-0 midway through the first period. Todd Marchant added two assists, and Bill Ranford made 29 saves.

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Nashville 4, Chicago 2--Dave Legwand and Drake Berehowski scored goals 52 seconds apart early in the third period as the Predators won at Chicago.

Sebastien Bordeleau and Tom Fitzgerald also had third-period goals for the Predators, who won their second consecutive game after losing six in a row.

Chicago has lost two in a row and is 1-5 in its last six. Chicago star Tony Amonte’s goal streak was ended at six games.

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St. Louis 4, San Jose 1--Stephane Richer and Chris Pronger scored in the second period as the Blues broke a tie to earn their team-record ninth consecutive victory on the road.

The streak is one shy of the Buffalo Sabres’ NHL record set in 1983-84 and three better than the Blues’ previous record, achieved only a year ago.

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Toronto 5, Phoenix 3--Darcy Tucker scored his first two goals as a Maple Leaf at Toronto as the team ended a season-high six-game winless streak (0-5-1).

Tucker was acquired in Feb. 9 trade with Tampa Bay. Toronto’s Curtis Joseph made 22 saves for his 26th victory.