Stars take Central Division lead with 5-2 victory over Blues

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ST. LOUIS (AP) — Wyatt Johnston scored twice, Tyler Seguin had a goal and an assist and the Dallas Stars beat the St. Louis Blues 5-2 on Wednesday night to take the Central Division lead.

Dallas moved ahead of idle Colorado for the top spot in the Central with 106 points. Colorado has 105 points, but has two games left to one at home against St. Louis on Thursday night for the Stars.

Joe Pavelski and Roope Hintz also scored for Dallas and Scott Wedgewood made 16 saves. The Stars finished with 25 road victories to tie the franchise record set in 2005-06.

Jason Robertson (109 points) had three assists for the Stars to move past Jeremy Roenick (107 in 1992-93) and Jimmy Carson (107 in 1987-88) for points in a season by a U.S.-born player age 23 or younger.

Robert Thomas had a goal and an assist for St. Louis. Jakub Vrana also scored and Joel Hofer made 32 saves.

Hintz and Johnston cashed in on a double-minor penalty called on Sammy Blais with power-play goals 48 seconds apart early in the second period to make it 4-2.

The goals were nearly identical, with Hintz and Johnston left alone in the slot to bury one-timers off passes behind the net to give the Stars a 4-2 lead.

Seguin, who played in his 900th game, extended the advantage with another power-play goal late in the second.

Dallas went 3 for 4 with the man advantage, taking advantage of a penalty kill that entered the contest 29th in the NHL with a paltry 72.9% success rate.

SHINING STAR

Miro Heiskanen (73 points) had two assists to pass Sergei Zubov (71 in 2005-06) for the most points in a season by a defenseman in Dallas history.

Heiskanen, who has 62 assists, also passed Craig Hartsburg (60 in 1981-82) for the most assists in a season by a defenseman in franchise history and tied Reijo Ruotsalainen (73 in 1984-85) for the most points in a season by a Finnish-born defenseman.

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