WINNIPEG -- The Dallas Stars' power play has struggled this season, but it delivered for them this week.
A hot power play was the last thing that the Winnipeg Jets needed to see, and the Stars made them pay for a lack of discipline in a 5-2 victory Saturday at MTS Centre.
Dallas, which was ranked 25th in the NHL on the power play entering the game, scored four times on eight opportunities. The four power-play goals were the most in a game this season for Dallas. The Stars' power play went 7-for-16 to help Dallas go 2-1-0 on a three-game Canadian road trip this week.
Winnipeg started the game having been shorthanded a League-high 202 times, and a parade to the penalty box cost the Jets in their third consecutive loss. Winnipeg has allowed five goals in each of the three losses, and seven of those goals came on the 13 power-play opportunities the Jets surrendered.
The win moved the Stars (23-19-7) within seven points of Winnipeg. Dallas has two games in hand on the Jets, who hold the Western Conference's first wild-card spot for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Patrick Eaves, Shawn Horcoff and Jason Spezza had power-play goals for Dallas. Rookie defenseman John Klingberg added two insurance goals, one with the extra man, in the third period and also had two assists. Center Tyler Seguin had three assists for his League-leading 18th multiple-point game.
Andrew Ladd and Toby Enstrom scored for Winnipeg (26-17-8).
Kari Lehtonen, making his sixth consecutive start, made 38 saves for the win. Jets rookie goaltender Michael Hutchinson had 27 saves.
In this third game since returning to the lineup after a 21-game absence because of a lower-body injury, Eaves scored his fifth goal of the season on the Stars' first power play of the game. Seguin's left-side shot bounced to Eaves, who put the rebound past Hutchinson at 5:13 of the first period. Eaves has two power-play goals since his return.
Winnipeg outshot Dallas 16-4 in the first half of the second period, and Ladd tied the game at 10:14 after sustained Winnipeg pressure on Lehtonen. Ladd took a pass from defenseman Mark Stuart before snapping a rising shot past Lehtonen. He has 18 goals, tying him with linemate Bryan Little for the team lead.
A slashing penalty to Winnipeg defenseman Zach Bogosian, who was benched by Jets coach Paul Maurice after a first-period slashing minor, set up the Stars' second goal. Horcoff tipped defenseman Trevor Daley's shot past Hutchinson at 14:21 for his seventh goal.
Dallas made it 3-1 at 18:47 with its third power-play goal after Winnipeg's Dustin Byfuglien took a delay-of-game penalty for shooting the puck over the glass. Spezza grabbed the rebound of Seguin's long point shot on the power play and jammed it into the net for his ninth goal.
Klingberg's eighth goal 4:31 into the third period off a shot through Colton Sceviour's screen made it 4-1. The four-point game for the 22-year-old defenseman, a fifth-round pick in the 2010 NHL Draft, was a career-high.
After a scrum led to a 5-on-3 Dallas power play, Klingberg's ninth goal made it 5-1 at 8:40. Enstrom's second goal of the season with 7:14 left in the game finished the scoring.
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