ST. LOUIS — Jamie Benn had three goals for his fifth career hat trick, and the Dallas Stars beat the St. Louis Blues 4-1 on Saturday night.
John Klingberg had a goal and an assist, and St. Louis native Ben Bishop made 29 saves as the Stars improved to 3-1 this season and 6-1-0 in their last seven games against the Blues. Dallas has won three of its last four and pulled three points behind St. Louis for third place in the Central Division.
Alex Pietrangelo scored for the Blues, who snapped a seven-game home winning streak. It was also their fourth loss in six games since Dallas snapped their franchise-record 11-game win streak on Feb. 21. Jordan Binnington had 17 saves while falling to 15-3-1 in 19 career starts.
The Blues appeared to gain some life after Pietrangelo got the Blues on the board with 4:20 left in the second period to cut the deficit to 2-1.
But Benn, back in the lineup after missing two games with an upper body injury, answered with a power-play goal with 2:49 remaining in the second. Tyler Seguin and Klingberg got the assists to help stymie the St. Louis comeback.
Benn scored an empty-netter late in the third to complete the hat trick.
Benn redirected Taylor Fedun’s shot to give the Stars a 1-0 lead with 3:08 left in the first period. Benn has 39 points (19 goals, 20 assists) in 39 career games against St. Louis.
Klingberg made it 2-0 with 1:16 left in the first, picking out the upper right corner with a quick wrister from the slot. It was his first goal in 12 games dating back to Feb. 4.
NOTES: Stars LW Blake Comeau had an assist on Klingberg’s goal, giving him 299 career points. … Blues LW Jaden Schwartz was fined $5,000 by the league for a cross-check of Carolina’s Dougie Hamilton during Friday’s game. … The Stars reassigned RW Denis Gurianov to Texas of the AHL to make room for Benn. … The Blues recalled F Sammy Blais under emergency conditions. He replaced C Robby Fabbri, who was a healthy scratch.
UP NEXT
Dallas: Hosts the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.
St. Louis: At Anaheim on Wednesday night.
___
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Joe Harris, The Associated Press