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BOX SCORE
DALLAS (AP) -- With Mike Modano out of the game with a
concussion, Joe Nieuwendyk reached a milestone and delivered a
victory for the Dallas Stars.
|  | | Joe Nieuwendyk celebrates after his first-period goal gave him 900 career points. He had two goals and an assist Wednesday. |
Nieuwendyk had two goals and an assist, becoming the 73rd NHL
player to reach 900 career points, as the Stars beat the expansion
Minnesota Wild 6-2. The Wild had won the first two games against
the team they replaced in Minnesota.
"I didn't think that they changed their game, but we were a lot hungrier and got some good looks at the net," Nieuwendyk said. "We went after them hard. We're getting contributions from a lot of people right now."
The Wild, whose first NHL season comes eight years after the
Stars moved south from Minnesota, beat Dallas 6-0 and 2-1 in the
first two meetings.
Brenden Morrow, who assisted on Nieuwendyk's first goal, put
Dallas ahead to stay when his power-play goal with 1:27 left in the
second period made it 3-2. He scored his 13th goal of the season
when he pushed in a puck that bounced off Jaime Langenbrunner after
Darryl Sydor's slap shot.
"We put a lot of emotion into it, we played with an edge," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. "To get six goals and be able to spread it around, that feels good. As the game went on, we got more feisty."
Less than a minute after Minnesota went ahead 2-1 on Sylvain
Blouin's unassisted goal at 7:17 of the second period, Nieuwendyk
and Brett Hull set up the game-tying goal by Jere Lehtinen.
Nieuwendyk scored 7:31 into the third after he got control of a
pass from Kirk Muller, that was deflected by John MacLean, to make
it 4-2.
Nieuwendyk has 23 goals and 21 assists this season, his sixth in
Dallas. In 1,195 games over 15 NHL seasons, he has 463 goals and
438 assists.
"They came out harder. Beating a team like that two times, they're going to be ready to go," Minnesota captain Brad Bombardir
said.
Modano, one of three Dallas players who also played for the
Stars franchise in Minnesota, was injured when he was tackled by Antti Laaksonen about eight minutes in. The Stars said the
concussion was "very mild" and that Modano's status was day to
day. The center will be evaluated again Thursday.
Hitchcock said Modano was feeling fine after the game.
"We think he'll be ready Friday for the Boston game,"
Hitchcock said. "(Modano's) left arm and shoulder slammed into his
face. That did all of the damage."
The initial Dallas lead came on Nieuwendyk's rebound goal 2:33
in. Grant Marshall's back-hander was stopped and Morrow got a stick
on the puck before Nieuwendyk slapped it past Manny Fernandez for a
1-0 lead.
Dallas goalie Eddie Belfour stopped 24 of 26 shots and is 6-1-1
in his last eight starts.
Fernandez, Belfour's backup in Dallas last season, stopped 52 of
53 shots against his former team the first two games. He gave up
six goals in 32 shots this time.
"They definitely played smarter," Fernandez said. "If I'm
going to give up that many to anybody, I don't want it to be
Dallas. But you just have to turn the page."
The Stars added two more goals late in the third, on Benoit
Hogue's wrist shot from the slot and MacLean's power-play goal.
Minnesota had tied the game at 1 on a power play goal from
Lubomir Skeras 11 minutes after Nieuwendyk's first goal.
Game notes
Marshall, with an assist on the first goal, earned his
first point in the six games since sustaining a concussion Feb. 1.
San Jose's Owen Nolan is serving an 11-game suspension for the hit
on Marshall. ... Minnesota is 6-4-1 its last 11 games. ... Muller
returned after missing 24 games with a bruised chest. ... Minnesota
will play host to the Stars on March 19, the next time the teams
meet in the budding rivalry. The Wild beat the Stars there 6-0 in
November.
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Minnesota Clubhouse
Dallas Clubhouse
RECAPS
Carolina 6
Atlanta 3
Pittsburgh 3
Florida 2
Washington 2
Nashville 1
Vancouver 2
Montreal 1
Detroit 7
Chicago 3
Dallas 6
Minnesota 2
Phoenix 3
Columbus 2
Colorado 8
Boston 2
Anaheim 1
San Jose 0
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Joe Nieuwendyk gets the first period goal as part of his historic night.
avi: 447 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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