Dallas sets team record with 52nd win of season



Columbus is 0-10 all-time in Dallas.
DALLAS (AP) -- Jason Arnott had an early power-play goal and Janne Niinimaa and Jaroslav Svoboda added rare goals, then the Dallas Stars had to scramble in the final minutes to hold on for a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The victory was the Stars' franchise-record 52nd of the season.
Stars goalie Marty Turco was 2:27 from a shutout when a long shot from Duvie Westcott went under him. Then, with Columbus pulling goalie Marc Denis for an extra attacker, Sergei Fedorov scored with 1:34 left to make things interesting.
It remained close all the way to the horn, with time expiring just after a shot by Rick Nash went off Turco's right leg.
Dallas won for the third time in four games since a three-game losing streak. The Stars remained perfect in Dallas against Columbus (10-0), with Turco improving to 9-0-0 against the Blue Jackets.
Record
At 52-22-5, Dallas has 109 points, tying the 1997-98 club for the third-best total in team history. The Stars -- who are locked into the No. 2 spot in the Western Conference playoffs -- have to win their final three games to top the franchise record of 114 set by the 1998-99 team that won the only Stanley Cup in team history.
Despite playing for the victory record, Dallas' primary objective against Columbus was ending a recent trend of picking up too many penalties and getting captain Mike Modano back onto the ice after he'd missed two games with a knee injury.
Modano got off to an auspicious start by getting caught holding 42 seconds into the game, but assisted on Arnott's goal a few minutes later. He left the ice bleeding from the bridge of his nose late in the first period after getting whacked by the shaft of Adam Foote's stick, a play that drew a double minor, yet returned for the second period.
Denis did a nice job keeping the game close the first period and a half. The only even-strength goal he allowed was to Jaroslav Svoboda with 29 seconds left in the second period. Denis finished with 23 saves.
The Stars faced 19 power plays their two previous games and 41 over the last five, an average of 8.2 per game. Columbus had only four.
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