Coyotes 4, Stars 1
Radim Vrbata scored his team-leading 25th goal of the season to snap a tie late in the second period and Mike Smith stopped 28 shots as the Phoenix Coyotes skated to a 4-1 road triumph over the Dallas Stars on Tuesday.
All-Star defenseman Keith Yandle, fellow blueliner Derek Morris and Raffi Torres also tallied for Phoenix, which pulled into a tie with the Minnesota Wild for eighth place in the Western Conference. Dallas is two points behind the Coyotes and Wild.
After Michael Ryder leveled the contest at 2:34 of the second period with a blast from the right faceoff circle, Vrbata regained the lead for Phoenix with 5:30 left in the session.
Vrbata accepted defenseman Rostislav Klesla's centering feed and directed the puck past Kari Lehtonen.
Torres scored 5:41 into the third period and Morris added his first goal of the season before Smith closed the door to improve to 4-0-0 against the team that drafted him in 2001.
Lehtonen finished with 20 saves to fall to 4-2-3 in his career versus the Coyotes.