DALLAS — Tyler Seguin scored twice during a four-goal second period and the Dallas Stars held off the Washington Capitals, 4-3, in a battle between two of the NHL’s top teams on Saturday night.
Washington leads the Eastern Conference, and Dallas began the night one point behind the Chicago Blackhawks for the Western Conference lead.
Seguin has 30 goals this season. Jamie Benn scored his 29th, and rookie Mattias Janmark started the scoring with his 11th.
Alex Ovechkin, Justin Williams and Andre Burakovsky scored for Washington in the third period. Ovechkin’s league-leading 35th goal occurred on the power play.
Capitals goalie Braden Holtby, who had 21 saves, lost in regulation for just the second time since Nov. 12. Philipp Grubauer replaced Holtby in the third period and made 10 saves.
Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen stopped 20 shots.
Two of Washington’s 10 regulation losses this season were against the Stars, who have won nine consecutive games against the Capitals dating back to Nov. 25, 2008.
Dallas defenseman Patrick Nemeth and Washington center Evgeny Kuznetsov each had two assists.
Both teams entered after consecutive road wins. Dallas had won in Chicago on Thursday night, and the Capitals had five consecutive wins overall.
The teams’ two best first-period scoring opportunities occurred during the first 4:30. Lehtonen stopped Jason Chimera when he skated alone a minute into the game. Later, Holtby turned away Vernon Fiddler’s shot from the slot.
Dallas didn’t score on the period’s only power play.
On a two-on-one rush in the second, Janmark took a pass from Ales Hemsky below the left faceoff circle and shot past Holtby into the upper right corner of the net at 1:55.
Barely five minutes later, Patrick Eaves set up Benn with a backhand pass through the goal mouth. The net was so open that Benn was able to whiff on one shot, recover and score from low in the right circle.
Dallas killed Washington’s first power play of the game midway through the second period.
The lead grew to 3-0 when Nemeth sent Seguin into the Capitals end. When no defender picked him up, Seguin sent a shot from the right circle between Holtby’s legs.
Seguin scored again at 19:23. With the Stars on a five-on-three power play, he put in the rebound of John Klingberg’s shot.
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