Casey DeSmith made 34 saves to help the visiting Dallas Stars defeat the Utah Hockey Club 2-1 on Monday night in Salt Lake City.
DeSmith’s previous start on Wednesday, a 6-2 away loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, saw him allow six goals on 26 shots.
Evgenii Dadonov and Jamie Benn scored second-period goals for the Stars, who have won three straight.
Nick Schmaltz scored his third goal in two games, and Karel Vejmelka made 19 stops for Utah, which was coming off a 6-0 road victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday but is still waiting for its first two-game winning streak since starting 3-0-0.
The Stars broke the scoreless deadlock with a power-play goal at 7:07 in the second period.
Clayton Keller was in the penalty box for holding Mavrik Bourque when Dadonov received a feed from Matt Duchene at the bottom of the right circle. Dadonov had enough room to move the puck to the dot before whirling and releasing a wrist shot that snuck through on the Vejmelka’s short side for a 1-0 lead.
Dallas scored again with 43 seconds left in the first, doubling their lead.
The Stars flipped the puck into the neutral zone, where Utah defenseman Michael Kesselring gloved it down, but Sam Steel swiped it and carried it all the way into the Utah zone corner.
Steel saw Benn trailing on the play and sent a short ball into the right circle, where Benn sent a wrist shot over Vejmelka’s right shoulder and into the far side of the net for his sixth goal of the season.
Schmaltz scored at 6:57 in the third period, ending DeSmith’s bid for his second shutout of the season.
Matias Maccelli passed to Schmaltz coming off the bench and into the Dallas zone, and Schmaltz scored with a wrist shot from the high slot, cutting it .
Tyler Seguin, the Stars’ third-leading scorer with 20 points, was placed on injured reserve on Monday with a chronic lower-body injury that dates back to December 1. He will miss at least two more games: Wednesday in Los Angeles and Friday in Las Vegas.
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