Seguin, Stars rout Canucks
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Dallas, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - Tyler Seguin fueled the Dallas Stars' 6-1 rout of the Vancouver Canucks with a hat trick and two assists on Thursday.
Jamie Benn supplied a goal and two assists, while Alex Goligoski added a goal and a helper. Ryan Garbutt accounted for Dallas' other marker and Kari Lehtonen made 32 saves for the Stars, who have won two of their last three.
"It's a huge two points for us. We know we had two big games tonight and Saturday, and we didn't want to look past tonight," said Seguin. "So even though it was a higher score than expected that's a huge two points for us."
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Zac Dalpe supplied Vancouver's lone score and Eddie Lack conceded five goals on 17 shots in the Canucks fourth straight loss.
"I think we're all kind of disappointed with the way it has been here lately, and I know we are not out of a playoff spot," Lack said. "We just have to battle through it. We've got to refocus and come back on Saturday."
Jacob Markstrom, who was acquired in the trade that sent Roberto Luongo to Florida on Tuesday, made his Vancouver debut at the start of the third and gave up one goal on five shots.
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The Canucks have now dropped 11 of their last 12.
Benn quickly put the Stars on the board with a wrister that beat Lack less than three minutes into the first.
Alex Chiasson sent a pass through the neutral zone to a streaking Seguin, who gathered the puck out of his skates and wristed a shot over the shoulder of Lack for a power-play goal 7:26 into the opening frame. Less than five minutes later, Seguin tallied his second of the night on a slapshot from the top of the right circle.
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Zack Kassian received a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct after sending Brenden Dillon head first into the boards from behind with 1:30 to play in the first. Dallas took advantage of the penalty 2:20 into the second after Goligoski was left wide open at the right circle, where he slapped the puck past Lack.
Goligoski then rushed into the zone in transition with Garbutt. He sent a saucer pass over to Garbutt, who finished the play for his 12th of the season with 7:52 left in the second.
The Canucks got on the board on the power play with 1:45 left in the second. Alexander Edler dumped the puck into the Stars zone and Lehtonen went behind the net to play it. The puck took a strange bounce off the netminder's stick out to a wide-open Dalpe in front, who deposited the puck into the vacant net.
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Benn stripped the puck off a Vancouver player in the defensive zone and moved into the Canucks zone. Benn slipped the puck up to Seguin, who completed the sequence with a shot that squeezed through the shoulder of Markstrom.
Game Notes
Seguin picked up his 100th career assist on Goligoski's power-play goal ... Seguin registered his third hat trick this season and tied Mike Modano and Bill Guerin with the most hat tricks in a season in franchise history ... Dallas swept Vancouver in a season series for the first time since the 1986-87 season ... Benn extended his point streak against Vancouver to seven games ... Goligoski extended his goal streak to three games.