Ducks 3, Stars 1
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Nate Thompson and Ryan Kesler scored short-handed goals to give the Anaheim Ducks a 3-1 victory over the Dallas Stars on Sunday night in front of 16,585 at the Honda Center.
Ryan Getzlaf added an empty-net goal and goalie John Gibson stopped 25 shots for the Ducks (44-24-10), who used their fourth win in five games to move into first place in the Pacific Division by one point over the idle Los Angeles Kings.
The Stars (48-23-9), despite getting a late goal from Radek Faksa, watched their four-game winning streak end and their lead in the Central Division shrink to two points over the second-place St. Louis Blues and four points over the Chicago Blackhawks.
Dallas has two games remaining in the final week of the regular season, both at home, but the Blues and Blackhawks must play three apiece. St. Louis and Chicago have two of their final three at home.
Thompson scored his third goal in three games, the longest such streak of his career, while the Ducks were defusing Andrew Cogliano's tripping penalty.
Dallas defenseman John Klingberg made a backhanded drop pass that Thompson intercepted at center ice. Thompson faked to his backhand and deposited the puck between goalie Antti Niemi's right skate and the left post at 12:14 of the second period.
Gibson made three critical saves earlier in the period. About two minutes into the period, Gibson stopped Valeri Nichushkin on a breakaway by closing his legs just before the puck crossed the goal line.
Nearly five minutes later, Gibson used his left pad to stop Patrick Sharp twice in two seconds after Sharp received a pass off the draw from a faceoff in the Ducks' zone.
Kesler scored Anaheim's second short-handed goal 10 seconds into the final period while Clayton Stoner served another tripping penalty. Sharp banked a puck off the boards behind the net but Jakob Silfverberg stole it and passed to Kesler, who snapped a wrist shot inside the right post for his 19th goal.
The Ducks had not scored two short-handed goals in a game since March 12, 2015, against the then-Phoenix Coyotes.
The Stars pulled Niemi for an extra attacker with 2:21 to play, enabling Faksa to score his fifth goal with 1:29 left. But Getzlaf's 13th ended the scoring with 21.3 seconds remaining.
Niemi finished with 22 saves.
NOTES: Dallas scratched D Jason Demers (shoulder), LW Mattias Janmark (upper body), D Jamie Oleksiak, RW Brett Ritchie (lower body), D Kris Russell (foot) and C Tyler Seguin (Achilles). Janmark sustained his injury Saturday against the Los Angeles Kings. ... Anaheim scratched G Frederik Andersen (concussion), D Kevin Bieksa (upper body), D Simon Despres (upper body), LW David Perron (separated right shoulder), LW Brandon Pirri (upper body) and C Rickard Rakell (appendicitis). Pirri was hurt in the second period of the Friday night game against the Vancouver Canucks. ... Ducks LW Andrew Cogliano played in his 700th consecutive game, the longest streak of its kind among active players and the sixth longest in NHL history. ... Ducks RW Corey Perry played in his 800th career game.