Eakin helps Stars eke out victory

In short order, the Dallas Stars went from embarrassed to triumphant.

Cody Eakin scored at 2:58 of overtime and the Stars beat the St. Louis Blues 3-2 on Thursday night, bouncing back from a blowout loss two days earlier to tie the second-round series at two games apiece.

"I said, 'It's time for us to man up', and I thought we did," coach Lindy Ruff said. "I thought our leaders were our leaders."

Patrick Sharp set up the winner and also scored for the Stars, coming off a 6-1 loss in Game 3. Rookie Radek Faksa had the other goal, his third of the postseason.

"I know it was ugly for a lot of the guys and the team in general for Game 3," Sharp said.

"Credit to the team, we were able to put it behind us."

Vladimir Tarasenko scored his sixth goal of the playoffs on a first-period breakaway and added an assist for St. Louis, giving him five points in the past two games.

Paul Stastny had his first of the postseason off a deflection from Tarasenko.

The Stars, who finished first overall in the Western Conference, regained home-ice advantage heading into Game 5 on Saturday in Dallas.

"It doesn't matter if we're in Dallas, if we're in St. Louis, if we're in the middle of nowhere," Blues captain David Backes said.

"We've got to play our same style of game, put it out there and when we do that the chips fall on our side of the table more often than not."

Eakin has a goal and seven assists in the postseason and hustled to get into position on the deciding score.

He beat Brian Elliott on a 3-on-2 break after getting a stick on Jori Lehtera's shot in tight on the other end against Kari Lehtonen.

"That's the nice thing about finishing first, we've got home-court advantage back," Eakin said. "It's a race to two, and it's going to be a lot of fun."

The Stars are 1-2 in overtime in the playoffs and the Blues are 2-2.

(China Daily 05/07/2016 page11)