Casey DeSmith stops 34 shots as Stars hamper Utah

Casey DeSmith made 34 saves to help the Dallas Stars to a 2-1 win over the Utah Hockey Club on Monday night in Salt Lake City.

DeSmith allowed six goals on 26 shots in his last start on Wednesday, a 6-2 road loss to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Evgenii Dadonov and Jamie Benn scored second-period goals for the Stars, who have won three straight.

Nick Schmaltz scored his third goal in the last two games and Karel Vejmelka made 19 saves for Utah, which earned a 6-0 road win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday but is still hoping to win back-to-back for the first time Time since start 3-0-0.

The Stars broke the scoreless tie with a power play goal at 7:07 of the second period.

Clayton Keller was sitting in the box for holding Mavrik Bourque when Dadonov received a pass from Matt Duchene at the bottom of the right circle. Dadonov had room to get the puck to the point before he spun and fired a wrist shot that made its way to Vejmelka’s short side for a 1-0 lead.

With 43 seconds left, Dallas scored again, doubling the lead.

The Stars dumped the puck into the neutral zone and Utah defenseman Michael Kesselring blocked it, but Sam Steel stole the puck and carried it to the corner of the Utah zone.

Steel noticed that Benn was lagging behind in the play and made a short pass into the right circle, where Benn fired a wrist shot over Vejmelka’s right shoulder and into the other side of the net, scoring his sixth goal of the season.

Schmaltz ended DeSmith’s attempt at his second shutout of the season by scoring at 6:57 of the third period.

Matias Maccelli passed to Schmaltz off the bench into the Dallas zone, and Schmaltz scored with a wrist shot from the high slot to make it 2-1.

Stars forward Tyler Seguin, third on the team with 20 points, was placed on injured reserve on Monday, retroactive to Dec. 1, because of a serious lower-body injury. He will miss at least two more games, Wednesday in Los Angeles and Friday in Los Angeles Vegas.

–Field level media