Second-period flurry keys Ducks' victory over Stars

DALLAS -- The Anaheim Ducks scored three goals within 4:49 in the second period to beat the Dallas Stars 4-0 Monday before 13,748 fans at American Airlines Center.

"Obviously, the result isn't what you want," Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan said. "We didn't lose, we got beat. We had enough there, if we'd have capitalized, to win it."

Bobby Ryan, Corey Perry and Matt Beleskey each lit the lamp for the Ducks in the middle period. Teemu Selanne added an empty-netter with 28 seconds left.

"Well, I think we set out to make this trip a good week by winning this game and grabbing a lot of points on the road. So I think we did a lot of good things tonight," Ryan said. "The guys were committed to the overall 60-minute effort. Viktor [Fasth] made some saves there [in the first period] that helped us get through that and we rolled from there."

Anaheim, now 11-3-5 on the road, got two points each from Ryan Getzlaf, Perry and Ryan. Ducks rookie goaltender Viktor Fasth stopped all 26 shots he faced for his third career shutout. He improved to 12-3-1 on the season.

"He made big saves. We weren't perfect tonight. We had breakdowns and I think all Viktor did was frustrate that team," Ducks head coach Bruce Boudreau said. "We didn't want them to get one because we thought that would really energize them and Viktor held the door and did that, especially at the end of the first, which would have given them a 1-0 lead going into the second and it might have been a whole different story."

Monday's loss came one day after Gulutzan characterized his team's performance as "embarrassing" in a 3-2 loss to the Kings on Sunday. Dallas started well but was unable to sustain that effort for the full 60 minutes.

"I don't think it's good enough," Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas said of how he and his teammates responded to Gulutzan's challenge. "The first period, we were OK, but we let it slip in the second. We gave them momentum and we couldn't recover after that."

Stars than All-Star center Jamie Benn summed up the night.

"Pretty disappointing," Benn said. "Fourteen games or whatever left, there's no bigger points than the game you're playing that night and we came out with none tonight, so it's a pretty [crappy] feeling."

The Ducks erupted in the middle part of the second period. After putting Dallas on the power play twice just several minutes earlier, the Ducks jumped in front at 10:13 when Ryan beat Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen short side.

Ryan's 28-foot wrister from the left faceoff circle came after Getzlaf executed a cross-ice pass with perfect precision. Ryan then quickly finished with a low shot into the left side of the Dallas net for his 10th of the season.

Anaheim had gone on the power play at 8:57 when Dallas defenseman Robidas was called for hooking on Ryan.

"They're a good hockey team and they start fast all the time." Getzlaf said. "Our goalie made a couple good saves. Their goalie made a couple good saves and I thought our guys did a great job of coming out tonight prepared to play, especially on a back-to-back.

Perry tapped in a rebound at 12:52 to make it 2-0, getting a step on Robidas to knock in his 12th of the season. Getzlaf's initial shot from near the Dallas blue line was deflected by Ryan before Perry slipped in the carom to double the Anaheim advantage.

Beleskey scored at 15:02 off assists from Kyle Palmieri and Sheldon Souray.

For Perry, the second-period flurry didn't arise from him and his teammates doing anything differently. It was more due to how scoring chances played out.

"Yeah, that's how we've been playing lately. We've been holding onto the puck in the offensive zone, getting chances. We were just not getting that second-chance opportunity that we created tonight to get those garbage goals that we needed," Perry said.

The game was scoreless after 20 minutes, with Dallas having the two best chances of the opening period, a 21-foot wrister by Loui Eriksson 1:18 into the game that struck the crossbar and an attempt by Benn 36 seconds before the first intermission that Fasth got his blocker in front of to keep the game scoreless.

"It was good to be able to make a couple saves there in the first," Fasth said. "I was not satisfied with the way I played the last two games I've been starting. So it was good for me to get some saves early in the first. Then, the team played incredible in front of me too to make it easier for me."

Boudreau was not only happy to see his power play break through, but he was also pleased to see other players besides Getzlaf, Perry and Ryan get involved on the offensive end.

"The fourth line gets one. Matty Beleskey hadn't scored in a while. Teemu [Selanne] hadn't scored in a while. Those guys are the ones that need a goal and they got it," Boudreau said. "Hopefully it'll jump start them again."

NOTES: Beleskey returned to the ice for Anaheim for the first time since March 24 against Detroit. He had been a healthy scratch the previous four games. ... Before the game, Dallas honored former center Stu Barnes for his selection to the Stars' 20th anniversary team. Barnes spent five of his 16 NHL seasons in Dallas and is currently a Stars assistant coach. ... Fasth made his first start since March 25 against San Jose. Fasth had lost his previous two starts, with his last win coming on March 18 against the Sharks. ... Left wing Francis Wathier, who was recalled from Texas of the American Hockey League on Monday morning, made his season debut for Dallas. Wathier had nine previous games of NHL experience over the past three seasons. His last appearance for Dallas before Monday was on Jan. 16, 2012 at St. Louis. ... Scouts from Columbus, San Jose and Toronto were in attendance.