Miro Heiskanen breaks late tie, Stars hold off Coyotes 4-2 for 4th straight victory
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Miro Heiskanen broke a tie with 5:28 left and the Dallas Stars won their fourth consecutive game, beating the Arizona Coyotes 4-2 on Sunday night.
Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Matt Duchene also scored, with Duchene getting an empty-netter with 1:30 to play. Duchene also had two assists to help the Stars keep pace with Colorado for the Central Division lead. The Avalanche also won Sunday, giving each team 97 points.
Jake Oettinger made 26 saves for Dallas.
Clayton Keller scored his 30th goal for Arizona. It’s his fifth straight game with a goal, a career best, and he joined Keith Tkachuk (1996-99) and Jeremy Roenick (1999-2001) as Coyotes with consecutive 30-goal seasons.
Nick Bjugstad also scored for the Coyotes.
Arizona had a two-man advantage in the third period when the score was still tied, but Dallas killed it off and completed a season sweep of the Coyotes, having won both previous meetings in Dallas, including Wednesday’s 5-2 victory. Dallas has won nine of its last 11 games.
“It was a huge kill. We got a ton of momentum off that kill,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer. “That was vintage Jake.”
Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny agreed.
“You don't score, you give momentum to the other team, and they scored not long after,” Tourigny said. “Absolutely it was a turning point.”
“I like our effort, I like our performance, I hate the result. They worked extremely hard and it's frustrating for them.”
Connor Ingram stopped 31 shots for Arizona, which had a three-game home winning streak halted. The Coyotes are 6-6 overall in March after going 0-for-February on the back end of a 14-game winless streak.
Benn opened the scoring 4:21 into the game, with the Dallas captain getting his 16th goal of the season. Keller tied it late in the period, beating Oettinger from the left side.
Tyler Seguin gave Dallas a 2-1 lead 2:19 into the second period.
In the third period, just after an Arizona power play ended, Bjugstad poked a rebound past Oettinger to tie it again.
Cameron Crotty made his NHL debut for the Coyotes. The 24-year-old defenseman, called up early Sunday, played 10 minutes, recording two of Arizona's 20 blocked shots. J.J. Moser led the team with four.
NEXT
Stars: At San Jose on Tuesday night.
Coyotes: Host Columbus on Tuesday night.
__
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports