Sharp scores late on power play, Stars beat Hurricanes 6-5

Dallas Stars beat Carolina Hurricanes 6-5 with Patrick Sharp’s power play (Photo taken from Dallas Stars’ official Facebook fan page)

DALLAS – Patrick Sharp scored on the power play with 19 seconds remaining, and the Dallas Stars beat the Carolina Hurricanes 6-5 on Tuesday night.

Sharp took a pass from John Klingberg above the right faceoff circle and sent a slap shot off Carolina goalie Eddie Lack and into the net.

The Hurricanes had rallied with four third-period goals to tie the score with 6:43 remaining, and didn’t get another shot on goal the rest of the way.

Dallas’ Jamie Benn scored his league-leading 19th goal and added three assists. He combined with linemantes Tyler Seguin (goal, 3 assists) and Valeri Nichuskin (goal, 2 assists) for three goals and eight assists. Patrick Eaves and Johnny Oduya also scored, and Klingberg also had three assists.

Justin Faulk had two goals, and Jacob Slavin, Phillip Di Giuseppe and Jeff Skinner also scored for Carolina. Victor Rask had three assists, and Noah Hanifin added two.

Lack, who stopped 10 shots, replaced Cam Ward after he gave up four goals on eight shots in the first period. Dallas’ Antti Niemi took over for Kari Lehtonen after Skinner tied the score at 5-5. Lehtonen finished with 25 saves.

Faulk leads the NHL with 11 power-play goals all 11 of his goals this season.

The Stars started slowly and didn’t put a shot on goal until 6:49 of the first period, when Eaves scored his first goal of the season on a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle.

Benn increased Dallas’ lead to 2-0 just 26 seconds later when he sent a wrist shot from the right circle past Ward.

Oduya sent a wrist shot from the high slot off a defender and into the net at 14:41. Just 17 seconds into the Stars’ first power play, Seguin one-timed a pass from Klingberg for a 4-0 lead with 1:16 left in the first.

The Hurricanes knocked one goal off Dallas’ lead when Slavin poked in the rebound of Riley Nash’s shot at 3:10 of the second period.

The Stars restored their four-goal lead with 33 seconds left in the period. Nichushkin skated past two defenders and went in alone. His shot went off Lack toward the goal line. The original ruling was no goal, but a replay review showed that the puck trickled across the goal line.