Stars strike early, hold on to win at Anaheim

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Youthful exuberance paid off in a huge way for the Dallas Stars.

Alex Chiasson scored his first NHL goal and Lane MacDermid scored his second in as many games as the Dallas Stars earned a 3-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks before an announced crowd of 16,884 Friday night at Honda Center.

"We needed that one big time," said Eric Nystrom, who scored a short-handed goal for the Stars. "Guys played hard. That's the difference. We were winning our one-on-one's and paying the price. That's what it takes to win.

"The young guys really stepped up and made some big plays. The old guys contributed. It was a great team effort."

Goalie Kari Lehtonen stopped 27 shots for the Stars, who snapped a three-game losing streak to the Ducks. After giving up a goal to Andrew Cogliano midway through the first period, Lehtonen blanked the Ducks the rest of the way. Viktor Fasth saved 22 of 25 shot for the Ducks.

The Stars scored all of their goals early and never trailed.

"There were breakdowns we can't have," Cogliano said. "It seems like every time we lose a game it's because of the first period. I think that plagued us again tonight. On a couple of goals there were just breakdowns."

The Stars (17-17-3) hadn't defeated Anaheim (25-8-5) since a series-opening decision Feb. 8 at Dallas. They also handed the Ducks their fifth setback at home in 19 games.

"I think we just want to play with a little bit different style of game," Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said. "More direct. It's a game where we don't want to bring the puck back and try to control it. We've been harping on that all year but with an influx of young guys, the more direct and it translates to a little bit of speed."

The two teams were meeting for the third time in five days. Predictably, things got heated throughout the contest, with Ducks' rookie Emerson Etem getting the best of Dallas' Antoine Roussel in a clash late in the first period. The two clubs combined for 10 penalties in the first two periods and 12 overall.

The Stars came out firing in the opening period. MacDermid, obtained by Dallas in the trade of Jaromir Jagr earlier this week, scored after taking a pass from Ryan Garbutt near the blue line, bolting down the middle of the ice and slapping a backhand past Fasth at 9:03 for a 1-0 lead.

It took the Ducks only 18 seconds to answer. After David Steckel grabbed a loose puck near the back of the Stars' net, he connected on a pass to Cogliano, who knotted the score at 1-1 at 9:21.

The Stars regained the lead with a Nystrom's shorthanded goal at 13:54. The left wing outraced three Ducks for the puck, then scored when he caught Fasth out of position well outside the crease for a 2-1 advantage.

"That ended up being the game-winning goal," Fasth said. "Of course I wanted to play that situation again. But unfortunately you can't do that. They were clearing it out of their zone and obviously I misread the speed of the puck. Or maybe I overestimated my skating ability."

Chiasson, who made his NHL debut Wednesday against the Ducks, scored his first goal with 48 seconds left in the period to make for a 3-1 Stars' lead.

The Ducks played without captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf, who sat out with a lower-body injury suffered in Wednesday's 5-2 win over the Stars.

"Obviously, he's probably our best player and our captain, but that's not an excuse," Cogliano said. "Lot of teams have injuries and top guys go down and you have to find a way to get it done. This time we didn't."

NOTES: Boston College's Steven Whitney, second in the nation in goals scored, signed a two-year entry-level deal with the Ducks on Thursday. Financial terms were not released. Whitney, 22, the Walter Brown Award winner, scored 128 points in 160 collegiate games. The Eagles advanced to the NCAA Tournament in each of his four seasons, winning the 2010 NCAA title when Whitney was a freshman. ... The Ducks also signed defenseman Andrew O'Brien to a three-year entry-level contract Friday. O'Brien, 20, appeared in 67 games for the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this season, scoring 18 points (two goals, 16 assists) with a plus-19 rating. ... Anaheim defenseman Sheldon Souray entered the game tied for the NHL lead with Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby with a plus-26 rating. ... Dallas left wing Loui Eriksson won six of 12 faceoffs in Wednesday's loss to the Ducks compared to three of 13 entering the contest.