Williams Helps Blackhawks Beat Stars

Mike Modano found his way into the record books, if only for a few minutes. That was hardly this biggest disappointment of the night for the Dallas Stars. <br/><br/>Jason Williams scored his second goal

Thursday, November 1st 2007, 7:30 am

By: News On 6

Mike Modano found his way into the record books, if only for a few minutes. That was hardly this biggest disappointment of the night for the Dallas Stars.

Jason Williams scored his second goal with 20.4 seconds left and the Chicago Blackhawks snapped a nine-game losing streak in Dallas, beating the Stars 5-4 on Wednesday night.

Dallas scored three straight goals in the third to erase a 3-1 deficit.

``This time we found a way to win,'' Williams said. ``We gave up a couple, then took the momentum back. We're making it hard on ourselves.''

Modano was credited with an assist on Sergei Zubov's third-period power-play goal, matching Phil Housley for the most points by an American-born NHL player with 1,232. After the game, it was ruled Modano never touched the puck and the assist was taken away from him.

This probably explains why Modano was hesitant to acknowledge the crowd after he appeared to tie the mark. He said the official scorers shouldn't have credited him with an assist in the first place.

``Someone screwed up,'' Modano said. ``It's partly why I didn't want to stand up. After a moment I stood to get it over with and get the game running again.''

In other NHL games Wednesday night, it was: New Jersey 6, Tampa Bay 1; Florida 4, Carolina 2; and Columbus 4, Los Angeles 1.

The Zubov goal at 10:07 gave the Stars a 4-3 lead, and it appeared the Stars were going to turn back the Blackhawks once again in Dallas.

But Williams made sure the Blackhawks left Texas with a win this time. Chicago last won in Dallas on March 7, 2001 _ back when the Stars played at Reunion Arena.

James Wisniewski fired a long pass to Williams, who made the winning wrist shot from the right circle past goalie Mike Smith.

``It was a nice win,'' Chicago coach Denis Savard said. ``It got everybody going. I like the way we fought back.''

The Stars seemed to seize momentum when they scored three unanswered goals in the first 10:07 of the third.

Philippe Boucher's first goal of the season cut the deficit to 3-2 40 seconds into the third. Dallas evened things on Niklas Hagman's third short-handed goal of the season. Then, 12 seconds into a 5-on-3 power play, Zubov _ who had assists on Dallas' two previous goals _ gave Dallas the lead and Modano the apparent record-tying point.

``We lost that energy, that moment.'' Dallas' Brenden Morrow said.

Marty Turco, who gave up three third-period goals in a loss to San Jose on Monday, was pulled in favor of Mike Smith at 10:59 of the second after stopping 18 shots. Smith made six saves.

Nikolai Khabibulin broke a seven-game winless streak in Dallas and had 19 saves for Chicago, which snapped a three-game losing streak.

``Lose three in a row like we had, it's difficult to take,'' Savard said. ``But this is a sign of a character team and it showed.''

Devils 6, Lightning 1

Jay Pandolfo scored three goals to help New Jersey win for the first time at their new home arena.

John Madden scored a goal and assisted on all three of Pandolfo's goals. Aaron Asham and Zach Parise also scored for the Devils and Martin Brodeur, playing in his 900th game, made 21 saves as New Jersey halted a four-game losing streak.

Vincent Lecavalier scored for the Lightning, who have dropped all five road games.

Panthers 4, Hurricanes 2

Richard Zednik scored the go-ahead goal and host Florida scored four times in the final period to beat Carolina for the first time in eight tries.

Trailing 1-0 coming into the final period, the Panthers tied the score on a goal by Olli Jokinen and then scored three goals in a 5:12 stretch. Jay Bouwmeester and Nathan Horton also scored for Florida.

Erik Cole and Ray Whitney had goals for Carolina and Ward stopped 28 shots.

Blue Jackets 4, Kings 1

Jason Chimera scored two goals, Pascal Leclaire made 33 saves and visiting Columbus got its fourth straight victory.

Gilbert Brule scored his first goal of the season and Rick Nash scored into an empty net with 18 seconds left, helping end the Kings' four-game winning streak.

The Blue Jackets staked Leclaire to a 3-0 lead before Kyle Calder scored on a rebound of Ladislav Nagy's short backhander during a power play at 9:15 of the second period, snapping Columbus' club-record streak of 18 successful penalty kills.