Ducks fire off to back-to-back wins, first win in Dallas since 2015

DALLAS – The Anaheim Ducks were hot from the word “go” on Monday and stamped out a nine-year losing mark at American Airlines Center.

Olen Zellweger and Brett Leason scored in the first period, and Cutter Gauthier put the Ducks ahead by three into the third period, as Anaheim held on to a 4-2 road win over the Dallas Stars.

Anaheim (7-8-2) snapped an 11-game losing streak in Dallas with their first win at American Airlines Center since March 1, 2015. The Ducks have won three of their last four games.

The Stars (11-6-0) took their first home loss in eight games.

“We played north the whole game,” Ducks goalie Lukáš Dostál said. “I think that was the key. We were putting the pucks deep, something we’ve been preaching the whole year.”

Brett Leason posted his first career three-point game, with a first-period goal and assists on the Ducks final two goals. Cutter Gauthier scored in back-to-back games for his second career goal, first career power-play marker.

Olen Zellweger opened the scoring for the second straight game, and Jackson LaCombe added the insurance marker in the third period. Dostál made 34 saves.

“I think the tracking was good,” Dostál said. “I was battling for the pucks. THe guys did a great job on the rebounds. They boxed out guys. I saw the puck from the blue line. That was a key for me.”

Esa Lindell and Matt Duchene scored for Dallas in the third period. Casey DeSmith made 23 saves.

Anaheim closes its quick two-game road trip tomorrow in Chicago. The Blackhawks beat the Ducks, 4-2, in Anaheim on Nov. 3.

For the second straight game, Zellweger sent the Ducks ahead in the game’s opening minutes with a wrister off the faceoff. Against Detroit on Friday, it took 1:12 for Zellweger to find the net. In Dallas, Zellweger scored 56 seconds into the game for the 1-0 lead and his fourth goal of the campaign.

Five minutes later, Leason doubled the lead, as he chipped around a Dallas defender and shot far side for the 2-0 lead.

In the second period, Gauthier put Anaheim up by three goals for the first time this season on the power play. Gauthier went down to one knee to nail a one-timer from the slot. Leason fed Gauthier from beside the net.

After a fairly even first period analytically, Dallas made its push five-on-five in the final two periods. The Stars led in five-on-five shot attempts by a wide margin in the second period (18-6) and in the third period (27-16).

Dostál stopped Dallas on a breakaway and a power play in the second period, but the Stars finally broke through three minutes into the third period.

Pavel Mintyukov missed a body check at the Ducks blueline, and Jamie Benn was able to zip a seam pass across to Mavrik Borque. Borque one-touched a pass to Lindell, who wired it by Dostál, 3-1.

Nine minutes later, Mintyukov was burned by Matt Duchene, who beat the Ducks defender and dragged the puck around Dostál to cut the Anaheim lead to one, 3-2.

The push by Dallas, which had scored 16 goals in its three-game winning streak, wasn’t enough, as LaCombe put the Ducks back ahead by two with a beautiful short-side backhand.

Gauthier shot wide, and Leason collected the puck off the end boards to feed the crashing LaCombe.

Dostál closed down the Stars in the final minutes to secure his fifth win in 13 starts. It was Dostál’s first career appearance against Dallas.

Game Notes:

• Ducks forward Brock McGinn left late in the second period with a lower-body injury and did not return. McGinn was tripped while driving to the net and crashed legs first into the end boards. McGinn initially went back to the bench without much weight on his left leg before making his way to the locker room.

• Anaheim called up forward Sam Colangelo and defenseman Tsyon Hinds from AHL San Diego on Sunday. Neither suited up for the Ducks in Dallas.

• Forward Mason McTavish was added to injured reserve with an upper-body on Sunday. McTavish has missed the previous three games. He joins defenseman Cam Fowler (upper-body) and forward Robby Fabbri (knee surgery) on injured reserve.

• Defenseman Urho Vaakanainen missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury.

• Anaheim wore its orange home helmets with its white road jerseys for the first time. Traditionally, white helmets have been worn with white jerseys, but the NHL loosened those uniform restrictions in recent seasons.