Casey DeSmith made 34 saves to help the Dallas Stars earn a 2-1 win against the Utah Hockey Club on Monday night in Salt Lake City.
DeSmith had surrendered six goals on 26 shots in his previous start, a 6-2 road loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday.
Evgenii Dadonov and Jamie Benn scored second-period goals for the Stars, who have won three in a row.
Nick Schmaltz scored his third goal in the past two games and Karel Vejmelka made 19 saves for Utah, which was coming off a 6-0 road win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday but is still looking to win two in a row for the first time since starting 3-0-0.
The Stars broke a scoreless tie with a power-play goal at 7:07 of the second period.
Clayton Keller was in the penalty box for holding Mavrik Bourque when Dadonov received a pass from Matt Duchene at the bottom of the right circle. Dadonov had room to bring the puck toward the dot before spinning and firing a snap shot that squeezed through on Vejmelka’s short side for a 1-0 lead.
Dallas scored again with 43 seconds left in the period to double the lead.
The Stars flipped the puck into the neutral zone and Utah defenseman Michael Kesselring gloved it down, but Sam Steel stole the puck and carried it all the way into the corner of the Utah zone.
Steel spotted Benn trailing on the play and made a short pass into the right circle, where Benn fired a snap shot over Vejmelka’s right shoulder and into the far side of the net for his sixth goal of the season.
Schmaltz ended DeSmith’s bid for his second shutout of the season by scoring at 6:57 of the third period.
Matias Maccelli passed to Schmaltz coming off the bench and into the Dallas zone, and Schmaltz scored with a snap shot from the high slot to cut Utah’s deficit to 2-1.
Stars forward Tyler Seguin, third on the team with 20 points, was placed on injured reserve on Monday with a nagging lower-body injury. He will miss at least two more games, Wednesday at Los Angeles and Friday at Vegas.
–Field Level Media
