Stars 4 Oilers 1
DALLAS — Toby Petersen, Steve Ott and Michael Ryder each scored goals and the Dallas Stars ended a five-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday night.
Kari Lehtonen made 17 saves for the Stars, who had been outscored 21-4 during the five-game skid.
Before the game, Canadian businessman Tom Gaglardi was introduced to the crowd as the Stars new owner and dropped the puck for the ceremonial faceoff. Gaglardi’s purchase of the team was approved by the NHL last week.
Radek Dvorak wrapped up the win with a short-handed empty-netter with 1:24 left, Dvorak’s first goal of the season.
Rookie Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who had five assists in the Oilers’ 9-2 win over Chicago on Saturday night, scored his eighth goal of the season for Edmonton.
Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 31 shots for Edmonton, which is 1-5 in its past six games.
Petersen got his first of the season from low in the left circle at 8:30 of the opening period.
Edmonton had a chance to tie with about five minutes left in the first period, but Ales Hemsky’s shot rang off the crossbar.
Ott made it 2-0 off Mike Ribeiro’s setup at 8:58 of the second period, Ott’s third of the season. Brenden Morrow also assisted for his 500th career point.
Nugent-Hopkins connected from the slot to get Edmonton on the board at 15:24 of the second, but Ryder fired into the upper right corner of the net off a 4 on 1 break 50 seconds later for his seventh of the season to give Dallas a 3-1 advantage.
It was the first game for Dallas defenceman Sheldon Souray against his former team.
Souray had a falling out with Edmonton and was placed on unconditional waivers during the summer, despite having one season left on a US$27 million, five-year deal signed in 2007.
He played 40 games last season for Hershey in the American Hockey League, but none for the Oilers.
He signed with the Stars as a free agent on a one year deal worth $1.65-million.