Lehtonen shuts out St Louis Blues 3-0

The Blues are Dallas Stars are now even after splitting the weekend home-and-home series. But it’s unlikely that these two Central Division rivals are feeling even after several exchanges in Sunday’s heated rematch.Back home at American Airlines Center, Dallas claimed a 3-0 victory, offsetting the Blues’ shootout win Saturday at Scottrade Center. Two Dallas goals Sunday came on the power play, including one from Stars captain Jamie Benn, whose 23rd of the season reclaimed the NHL lead after he had sat in a tie with the Blues’ Vladimir Tarasenko.In a battle of backups, Brian Elliott was sensational for the visitors, making 35 saves, but he took the loss. Kari Lehtonen got the call for the Stars and earned the win despite being called on for only 22 saves.“I think the difference was their top players came to play, they set the tone for them ... that got us back on our heels,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. “Our goalie was great. Elliott was outstanding. That’s the part that disappoints everybody here. He battled like crazy, he made great saves and we couldn’t get a goal for him.”The Blues, who now sit nine points back of the Central Division-leading Dallas, will continue a stretch of games against the division. They return home to host Nashville on Tuesday and Minnesota on Thursday.If the belief was that the second meeting of the back-to-back set with Dallas would be feistier, that proved to be correct. And it proved to be a difficult game to officiate with only referee, as Rob Martell was left to call the game himself with Brad Meier unable to make it due to travel delays.Interestingly, a chippy rematch began with the NHL’s two highest scorers -- Vladimir Tarasenko and Jamie Benn -- exchanging shoves six minutes into the game. There were a combined 44 goals sitting in the penalty boxes when the two were whistled for roughing.Dallas went on a power play late in the first period, and the Stars converted this time. There was a delayed penalty against Scottie Upshall for interference in the works when some more extra-curricular activity broke out. Benn, again, was skating through the Dallas defensive zone when the Blues’ Robert Bortuzzo hit him in the mid-section with the butt-end of his stick.“He’s obviously a high-end player on their team,” Bortuzzo said. “I’m trying to make things as uncomfortable as possible. I have a lot of respect for the guy. We’re just playing hard. We were looking for something to get the engines going. That is something that our team in the past has used to kind of kick-start us.”Benn hunched over in pain, skating to the Stars’ bench, where he labored momentarily. But seconds later, he was smiling and back out with the first unit on the power play, which picked up a goal from former Blackhawk Patrick Sharp.Dallas defenseman Alex Goligoski centered to Sharp, whose initial shot hit the crossbar. The puck parked in front, where Sharp banged it past Elliott for a 1-0 lead with 1:57 remaining in the opening period.The Blues were outshot 16-5 in the period, and the only reason it was a one-goal game at the intermission was the play of Elliott, who turned away back-to-back scoring chances by Jordie Benn with three minutes to play.“I felt good,” Elliott said. “I made a couple of good saves to try to keep us in it. But with the less-than-24-hour turnaround, it just looked like we didn’t have the same amount of gas as we did at home.”On the opening face-off of the second period, the Blues’ Troy Brouwer dropped the gloves with Dallas’ Antoine Roussel. That was followed seven seconds later by the Stars’ Travis Moen taking on Bortuzzo. It was obvious that Moen, who skated past the Blues’ Ryan Reaves to get to Bortuzzo, was after the player who had dinged Jamie Benn.“That’s part of the game,” Bortuzzo said. “If you’re going to walk that line, you’ve got to answer the bell. (Benn) is obviously a huge part of their team. Guys on our team would be doing the same thing.”Jamie Benn had a chance to get even himself three minutes into the second period, but with his first chance at goal No. 23, he missed on a bad-angle attempt into an open net.The Stars outshot the Blues 29-12 through two periods, but after Elliott robbed Ales Hemsky of a goal with 6:18 left in the period, their lead remained 1-0 heading into the third. Dallas blew a 2-1 lead in the third frame Saturday against the Blues, but they wouldn’t waste another.A tripping call against the Blues’ Dmitrij Jaskin with 31 seconds left in the second period kept the Stars on the power play early in the third. And just 20 second into the final period, Jamie Benn gave himself some extra space by cross-checking Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester.Sharp’s centering feed went off Bouwmeester, who was collecting himself after the cross-check. Benn collected the puck and put it past Elliott.Asked if Dallas got away with one, Bouwmeester replied: “Yeah, I would say so. If they would call penalties both ways, then for sure he did. One ref tonight and the guy we got was what he was, so that’s the way it goes.”It marked only the second time this season the Blues had surrendered two power-play goals in the same game. They got two power plays themselves in the final 10 minutes of regulation, but couldn’t convert and were shutout for the third time this season. The Blues pulled Elliott with 2:15 remaining and the Stars added an empty-net goal by Cody Eakin.