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 On Tuesday night, he put an end to those worries.
Benn, who had 17 two-goal games in his career, including three this
season, finally recorded his first NHL hat trick to lead the Stars
to a 4-1 win over the St. Louis Blues, snapping the Blues'
three-game winning streak.
"It's a nice little relief," Benn said. "I've had two pretty early
in other games."
Benn got the Dallas offense ignited with his first goal, just 2:47
into the game. He scored again at the 8:18 mark, and the Stars got
their third goal just 20 seconds later, chasing St. Louis goalie
Brian Elliott from the game after he allowed the three goals on
Dallas' first six shots.
He completed the hat trick with a power-play goal 3:39 into the
second period.
Benn, who now has 22 goals for the season -- his fifth 20-goal
season -- was more concerned with earning the two points that helped
the Stars continue their uphill climb toward a playoff spot.
Dallas is now four points behind San Jose for the second wild-card
spot in the Western Conference, with the Sharks coming to Dallas on
Thursday night.
 "This is a crucial time right now," Benn said. "I put pressure on
myself to step my game up and do whatever it takes to help this team
win. It's that time of year right now. All that matters is the two
points."
Dallas coach Lindy Ruff did not realize Benn had never had a hat
trick.
"Was that his first career hat trick?" Ruff said. "Then he's still
two behind me or something like that. I didn't realize that. Wow,
that's awesome ... well deserved. I thought he played a great game.
I never would have guessed he didn't have a hat trick."
It was the first hat trick recorded by a Dallas player not named
Tyler Seguin since current Blues left winger Steve Ott scored three
goals in a game on March 31, 2010.
Center Jason Spezza earned assists on all three of Benn's goals.
Ruff, celebrating his 55th birthday, was pleased with his entire
team's performance as Dallas won in St. Louis for the fifth
consecutive time dating back to last season.
"I really thought that was probably one of our better all-around
games of the year," Ruff said. "We didn't get trapped in our own end
very often, I thought we played the game real quick and we won the
special teams battle."
Goalie Kari Lehtonen lost his bid for his fifth shutout of the
season with just 7:30 left in the game when left winger Patrik
Berglund scored for the Blues.
"Before I needed to do anything it was already 3-0 and that's kind
of special," said Lehtonen, who stopped 27 of the Blues' 28 shots.
"We just kept playing after that. It was a nice win. I wasn't too
disappointed (losing the shutout). I was still happy we were up
4-1."
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Disappointing and troubling were the word the Blues used as well --
to describe their overall performance.
"Disappointing is hitting the nail on the head," said center David
Backes. "The first goal's a blown defensive zone draw. Benn's
shooting from the ladies tees, he doesn't miss from there. We give
up a 2-on-1 a couple shifts later and it's 2-0 pretty early. I take
a ton of responsibility tonight. I think my line will own that as a
group as well and we just need to be better."
Coach Ken Hitchcock called his team's performance troubling.
"This is a team that wasn't ready to compete. We weren't ready from
the start," Hitchcock said. "Troubling. It would be troubling not to
not come back and be ready to play, especially ... Dallas has had
the advantage on us the last two games early in the game and we've
had to mount comebacks in the games to be competitive. It's
concerning.
"They played a good game and we didn't. It's the bottom line. We
didn't do the things that make us look and act and behave like a
good hockey club. We were spread out all over the ice. We were
really good when we work for each other. We didn't work for each
other at all today."
NOTES: The Stars played their second game without C Tyler Seguin,
who is expected to miss three-to-five weeks because of a knee
injury. He ranks fifth in the league with 29 goals. ... D Barret
Jackman played his 780th game for the Blues, passing Brian Sutter to
move into second place on the team's list for most career games.
Jackman now trails only Hall of Famer Bernie Federko, who played in
927 games for the Blues before finishing his career with one season
in Detroit. ... Blues LW Chris Porter has recovered from a broken
ankle and could be activated from injured reserve later this week.
He has been out since Dec. 29. ... The Stars expect to get RW Ales
Hemsky (lower-body injury) back for Thursday's home game against San
Jose. ... The Blues, who began a four-game homestand, host the
Boston Bruins in Friday night.
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