DeSmith makes 46 saves, Stars push point streak to 7 in win against Flames

CALGARY -- Casey DeSmith made 46 saves, and the Dallas Stars extended their point streak to seven games with a 5-2 win against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday.

Mikko Rantanen, Roope Hintz, Matt Duchene and Mikael Granlund each had a goal and an assist, and Wyatt Johnston scored in his third straight game for the Stars (47-21-4), who have won four straight and are 5-0-2 in their past seven.

Dallas moved within four points of the Winnipeg Jets for first in the Central Division and Western Conference.

"Winning's fun no matter what it looks like," DeSmith said. "Right now, we're winning games and just trying to better ourselves every night and try to ramp it up before playoffs because that's when the games become really hard and really tiring and really physical. We just have to get our game in a good place before that."

Nazem Kadri scored twice to extend his goal-scoring streak to five games (seven goals), and Dustin Wolf made 14 saves for the Flames (34-26-11), who had a four-game winning streak end.

"It's one of those games where we felt we certainly deserved it," Kadri said. "Unfortunate to come out with the loss, but you've got to tip your cap. Their goaltender made some incredible saves. I don't think you can get discouraged with that one."

Calgary is six points behind the St. Louis Blues, who won 3-2 against the Nashville Predators on Thursday, for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the West with three games in hand.

"I think we win that game most nights," Flames forward Blake Coleman said. "I don't think anybody is disappointed with our effort tonight. I thought everybody showed up and left it on the ice and sometimes it just doesn't go your way."

Dallas scored twice in 1:16 in the second period to jump out to a 3-1 lead.

Johnston made it 2-1 at 12:55 when he lifted his own rebound over a sprawled Wolf after driving wide around Daniil Miromanov, and Granlund pushed it to 3-1 at 14:11 when he one-timed a centering pass from Mason Marchment at the top of the crease.

"We have so many skilled guys and guys who can make plays and guys who can score, so that makes us really dangerous even if we don't generate as much as we want to," Johnston said. "At the same time, you don't want to have to rely on only a few number of chances offensively. You want to be generating a lot more."

Kadri cut it to 3-2 just 16 seconds into the third period with a snap shot from the right circle off a backhanded pass from Jonathan Huberdeau in the slot. The goal came after Calgary controlled the period's opening face-off and set up in the offensive zone.

Wolf made the initial stop on Hintz's redirect at the edge of the crease off the rush, but Rantanen crashed the net and scored on the rebound to push it to 4-2 at 13:22.

Duchene scored an empty-net goal with 1:49 remaining for the 5-2 final.

"It's huge. We want to finish as high as we possibly can in the standings," Johnston said. "It's important to try to close that gap, try to guarantee home ice as long as you can. It's important to get as many points as you possibly can this time of year."

Hintz put the Stars up 1-0 at 7:09 of the first period with a shot that beat Wolf blocker side after taking a cross-slot pass from Rantanen on a broken play.

Connor Zary looked to have tied it at 14:02, but video review confirmed he kicked Kadri's centering pass into the net.

Zary later left the game 7:10 into the third period with a left knee injury following a collision with Rantanen. There was no update on postgame on Zary, who missed 14 games from Jan. 11-Feb. 23 because of an injury to his left knee.

"It's hard to watch. You don't ever want to see a player go through that," Flames coach Ryan Huska said. "You see how hard they work to come back with their rehab and try to put themselves in a position to come back, so our hope now is that the work that he's done has strengthened his knee up enough so the injury isn't serious. We won't know more until later on to what it's actually going to look like but we're hopeful, I will say."

Kadri then tied it 1-1 at 8:12 of the second period with a short-side shot over DeSmith's right shoulder from the edge of the crease.

"Just tried to bring him off the post a little bit," said Kadri, who hit the 30-goal mark for the third time in his career and first since 2017-18. "I feel I had some room. I was able to just make a move and find a little pocket short side. Big goal for us, yeah."

Kadri's goal came after Coleman shot by DeSmith's right pad from the slot at 5:30, but the Stars successfully challenged that Joel Farabee impaired DeSmith’s ability to play his position prior to the goal.

"Thankfully a couple of them got goals called back," DeSmith said. "Always nice when that happens. The one in the second period that got called back, obviously a huge turning point. The one in the first period, too. Caught some lucky bounces tonight but we'll take it."

NOTES: Dallas, which won 4-3 at the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday, is 8-2-0 in the second of back-to-back games this season. ... The Stars are 33-1-1 when leading after two periods. ... Rantanen hit the 30-goal mark for the fifth straight season and became the third Finnish-born player in NHL history to post a run of that length, after Jari Kurri (10 from 1980-81 to 1989-90) and Teemu Selanne (six from 1995-96 to 2000-01).