Benn scores 40th goal, Stars beat Coyotes 4-1
DALLAS (AP) — Jamie Benn scored his 40th goal, Antti Niemi made 31 saves and the Dallas Stars beat the Arizona Coyotes 4-1 on Thursday night to move two points ahead in the Western Conference race.
Dallas (103 points) pulled away from second-place St. Louis (101). The Stars have four games remaining, and the Blues have five.
The loss eliminated the Coyotes from playoff contention.
Arizona's Martin Hanzal scored the game's first goal 17:07 into the first period, but Dallas tied it less than a minute later on Patrick Eaves' 10th goal.
The Stars' Radek Faksa scored 11 seconds into the second period. Benn's goal came 10 minutes later, and Patrick Sharp added a power-play goal into an empty net with 1:11 to play.
Benn is the Stars' first 40-goal scorer since Mike Modano in 1993-94, the team's first season in Dallas.