Ryder's 3 points lead Stars to 3-1 win over Oilers

[March 29, 2012]  EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) -- Michael Ryder scored two goals and added an assist to lift the Dallas Stars over the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 on Wednesday night.

Mike Ribeiro also scored and had two assists for the Stars (42-30-5), who moved back atop the tight Pacific Division. Dallas has a one-point lead over Los Angeles and San Jose, and a two-point edge over Phoenix. Each team has five games remaining.

Ales Hemsky had the lone goal for the Oilers (31-37-9), who were 5-0-2 in their previous seven games.

Edmonton came close to going ahead early, just eight minutes in, on a short-handed 2-on-1 break, but Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen came across to make a kick pad save on Nick Schultz.

Dallas took a 1-0 lead 11:43 in when Ryder sped around Jeff Petry and chipped the puck over the stick of diving goalie Devan Dubnyk for his 34th goal.

The Stars took a two-goal lead 5:05 into the second period. Ribeiro took a return pass from Loui Eriksson on a 2-on-1 rush and banked the puck into the net off of Dubnyk.

Ryder had a breakaway chance, but Dubnyk made a stick save to keep it at 2-0 after 40 minutes.

Lehtonen kept the Oilers off the board early in the third, doing the splits to stop Jordan Eberle on a short-handed break.

The Stars made it 3-0 at 4:11 of the third when Ryder finished a tic-tac-toe passing play at the side of the net for his second goal of the game.

Edmonton broke Lehtonen's bid for his fifth shutout of the season at 8:21. Corey Potter's shot went wide but came off the boards to Hemsky at the other side of the net, and he scored into a wide-open goal.

NOTES: The Stars swept the four-game season series after winning the first three games by a combined score of 11-3. It was their first sweep of the Oilers since the 2007-08 season. ... Oilers captain Shawn Horcoff was in the lineup after leaving the previous game early with an injury. Rookie F Lennart Petrell and veteran D Andy Sutton also returned. ... F Reilly Smith played for Dallas but the Stars were without forward Eric Nystrom and Radek Dvorak, and defenseman Mark Fistric. ... Eriksson had two assists to reach 70 points for the third consecutive season. Steven Stamkos, Joe Thornton and Henrik Sedin are the only other NHL players to have done that.

[Associated Press]

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