Stankoven, Duchene each gets 3 points, Stars defeat Maple Leafs
Logan Stankoven ended a 25-game goal drought, scoring twice and adding an assist for the Dallas Stars in a 4-1 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.
“It’s nice to contribute,” Stankoven said. “I just think the thing for me is I haven’t changed the way I play. Maybe tonight I went to the net a bit more and got some good bounces. But I don’t think I’ve changed the way I play even though the puck hasn’t been going in. I try and hunt pucks and be good defensively and do the little things right.”
Matt Duchene had a goal and two assists and Jake Oettinger made 27 saves for the Stars (28-14-1), who have won eight of their past nine.
Dallas ended a seven-game losing streak against Toronto, dating back to Feb. 13, 2020, a 3-2 Stars win.
“It was a solid road game,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “I thought our start, we mismanaged the puck a little bit in the first and that team is really dangerous, but I thought as the game went on, we got better, we got more detail in our game and that’s how you have to play against them to have success.”
Auston Matthews scored, and Joseph Woll made 19 saves for the Maple Leafs (27-16-2), who have lost three in a row for the first time since going 0-2-1 from Oct. 22-26.
“I thought it was pretty tight 5-on-5,” Matthews said. “Obviously they won the special teams battle but I thought 5-on-5 there was not a whole lot of space on both ends. It was pretty close in the third period and just a couple of breakdowns and obviously they capitalize.”
“I think our execution can be better. We’re going through adversity right now and as much as you prefer not to go through that, it’s necessary sometimes and these are the kinds of moments where we have to come together even more and stick with each other and work our way out of it.”
Mavrik Bourque put the Stars up 2-1 at 12:35 of the second period on the power play. After Thomas Harley’s point shot was deflected in the slot by Stankoven, it ricochetted off Bourque’s leg at the side of the net.
Duchene pushed it to 3-1 at 1:06 of the third period on the power play when he took a pass from Wyatt Johnston at the side of the net, pulled the puck to the middle and shot past Woll’s blocker.
“Start of the game they were taking it to us a little bit and then they got one early and then we weathered the storm and got one, a big goal from Stankoven,” Duchene said. “I think we drew a lot of energy off of that, he’d been snake-bitten bad, and it was nice to see him get one to go and from there, I thought we played a really good game.”
Dallas went 2-for-3 on the power play; Toronto was 0-for-2.
“It was a special teams battle tonight, I thought 5-on-5 pretty even game, pretty tight game, not much going on either way,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “We’ve got to win that [special teams] battle. But we’re not getting the bounces I don’t think but we’re not executing good enough. I think we can execute better. We seem a little off on the execution part of things.”
The Stars went up 4-1 at 2:54 when Duchene’s shot was deflected in the slot by Stankoven.
“It’s impossible not to [have the goal drought weigh on him],” Deboer said. “The thing with him though is it never changes his effort. He was due to have a game like this and get out of it, he’s had a lot of really good looks lately so nice for him to cash in.”
Matthews put the Maple Leafs up 1-0 at 4:15 of the first period when he took a pass from Mitch Marner and shot high blocker from the left face-off dot.
“Not the result we wanted playing against a really good team, a perennial contender so we knew the challenge,” Maple Leafs forward John Tavares said. “I really liked our start, we had some really good chances to extend our lead, hit a few posts and then we lost the special teams battle from there.”
Stankoven tied it 1-1 at 8:33 when he jammed in his own rebound at the side of the net for his first goal since Nov. 14.
“It’s tough at times,” Stankoven said. “A lot of chats with different people, my parents, everyone was very supportive. It wasn’t easy but there’s always better days ahead and sometimes you have to sit back and realize you are in the best League in the world, and you have to enjoy it. Sometimes when you are trying to hard, that’s when the puck doesn’t go in.”
