Stars 4, Hurricanes 1

The Carolina Hurricanes had a slow start in Dallas and ended up losing 4-1 to the Stars on Thursday night in the second game of their five game road trip.

Tyler Seguin made it 1-0 on a nice feed from rookie sensation Valeri Nichushkin just 3:18 into the game.

Less than three minutes later, Brenden Dillon blasted an open shot past Anton Khudobin to make it 2-0, and the Stars had all the scoring they needed for the night.   The goal was the first of two shorthanded scored against the Canes this game.

While the Hurricanes were able to generate shots on goal, the Stars more than doubled them up on scoring chances and certainly had many more quality scoring chances than the Hurricanes.

With just 1:25 left in the second period, Jamie Benn skated through the Canes defense like it was Swiss cheese and scored on a breakaway for another shorthanded goal.  It was his second breakaway chance of the period.

At 2:42 into the third period, Eric Staal scored on a shot from the side of the net which Kari Lehtonen misjudged, but that would be the only score for Carolina.

Things got a little crazy at 5:36 into the third when Antoine Roussel skated directly into Khudobin on a rush, taking the goalie out.  The skater was given a five minute charging penalty and a game misconduct, but that was the least of his problems.

Ron Hainsey took exception and skated right over to the Star, dropped his gloves, and continually pummeled him.  At the end of the altercation, it looked like Hainsey tried to give him a face plant into the ice when he took him down.  Roussel got right up, seemingly no worse for wear, but his face was bloodied badly.

Hainsey of course was given an instigator for his trouble, but will certainly live with it.

The teams battled back and forth the rest of the contest until the Stars scored an empty netter with less than a minute left, when John-Michael Liles backed off Cody Eakin, giving him an uncontested shot into the open net.

Next up for the Canes is a game against the Kings on Saturday starting at 4 p.m. Eastern.

Game Notes:

• Khudobin made several fine saves as the Stars generated plenty of top grade chances throughout the contest.  He finished the game making 30 saves on 33 shots.  The goalie has not allowed more than three goals in any game played yet this season.
• The second line had a tough night and Jordan Staal finished with a team worst -4.
• Alexander Semin got knocked around pretty good in the first period and left the game with a lower body injury.  No update was given on his status.
• The team was outshot 34-30 and were led by Eric Staal with seven shots.  Staal now has goals scored in each of the last two games and has 38 points in the last 38 games.
• Post game interviews can be found here: Canes PR.com.