ANAHEIM, Calif., April 29 (UPI) -- Jere Lehtinen scored twice Monday night to help the Dallas Stars ease past the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 2-1.
Goaltender Marty Turco made 31 saves as the Stars ended the Ducks' six-game postseason winning streak in Game Three of their NHL Western Conference semifinal series.
Anaheim rode the goaltending of Jean-Sebastien Giguere and timely scoring to reel off six consecutive one-goal wins, but the Ducks never led in this contest. The Stars climbed within two games to one in the best-of-seven series.
"It's not a good feeling," said Anaheim defenseman Keith Carney. "Anytime you lose, it's a bad feeling. We knew going in that we weren't going to win every game. It was a great roll that we were on, but things didn't work out for us tonight."
Lehtinen opened the scoring just 2:24 into the first period, and broke a 1-1 tie with a power-play goal at 3:41 of the second.
"You want to score goals, but games like this are so tight, so there's not too many chances to score," Lehtinen said. "I was fortunate to get two goals tonight, and we got a win."
The rest was up to Turco, who produced one of his finest games in the playoffs. He stopped 15 shots in the opening period, and all 16 over the final two to ensure the top-seeded Stars get at least one more home game.
Anaheim had two great chances to force its third straight overtime contest. Four minutes into the third period, rookie Stanislav Chistov got a rebound down low and had a half-empty net at which to shoot, but Turco kicked out his left pad and got a piece of the puck.
"You're beating yourself up for the rebound, but then you go ahead and make that save," Turco said. "It was a great opportunity, but I think it was more what I gave them. I made up for my own mistakes."
