Stars 4, Penguins 1
PITTSBURGH -- Goaltender Antti Niemi made 33 saves and the Dallas Stars dominated the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second time in 15 days, winning 4-1 Thursday night for their fifth consecutive victory.
Niemi was excellent from the start to improve to 6-1-1 in his career against the Penguins, who had won three in a row only to generate little offense against a Stars team that has scored 25 goals to Pittsburgh's 11 this season.
The Stars, off to a 6-1 start that includes four consecutive road wins, didn't get a point from either of their high-scoring forwards -- reigning NHL scoring champion Jamie Benn (10 points) or center Tyler Seguin (10 points) -- but they didn't need any.
Niemi has stopped 70 of the 71 Pittsburgh shots he has faced this season, and he throttled both Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who was held without a point for the sixth time in seven games, and right winger Phil Kessel, who has just two career goals against Dallas.
The Penguins also couldn't convert on their five power plays, including a 5-on-3 in the third period, and are 2-of-25 with the man advantage this season.
The Penguins controlled the early play with a 9-2 advantage in shots that included multiple scoring chances by center Evgeni Malkin and Kessel. But the Stars switched the momentum with first-of-the-season goals by defensemen Johnny Oduya and John Klingberg less than five minutes apart.
Oduya scored his first goal in 40 regular-season games and 63 games overall with a seemingly harmless wrist shot from the blue line that somehow eluded goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who didn't appear to see the puck.
After a delay-of-game penalty on right winger Patric Hornqvist, Fleury was screened by Benn on Klingberg's power-play goal off a hard wrist shot from the left point that sailed under the crossbar at 15:05.
Stars center Jason Spezza was stopped by Fleury on a backhander from close range early in the second period. But Spezza scored his fifth goal of the season unassisted at 5:07 with a snap shot off Penguins left winger David Perron's ill-advised, no-look pass to the slot.
Center Nick Bonino scored his first goal with Pittsburgh after working a one-man forecheck, skating from behind the net to beat Niemi to the short side at 11:20. But left winger Mattias Janmark restored Dallas' three-goal lead only 1:42 later on a rebound for his third of the season.
NOTES: Stars G Antti Niemi and G Kari Lehtonen are sharing the goaltending job, an unusual arrangement these days in the NHL. Niemi started against the Penguins for the second time this season. He shut out Pittsburgh 3-0 in a season opener on Oct. 8. ... The Stars scratched D Patrik Nemeth and D Jamie Oleksiak. ... Stars LW Travis Moen (upper body) is on injured reserve. ... The Penguins ended a five-game homestand, their longest of the season. They play six of the next seven on the road, including a western Canada swing. ... Penguins RW/LW Pascal Dupuis played in his first game since Nov. 15, 2014. He appeared in only 55 games the last two seasons because of an ACL tear and career-threatening blood clots. ... Penguins RW Daniel Sprong sat out a second consecutive game. The Dutch-born Sprong spent several days in Canada ironing out a visa issue. ... The Penguins scratched Sprong, RW Bobby Farnham and D Adam Clendening.