ANAHEIM, Calif. – Two first period goals, 50 seconds apart, were enough for the Dallas Stars to defeat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 3-1 on Sunday at the Arrowhead Pond.

For the second-straight game the Ducks put more than 40 shots on goal.  Sunday, Anaheim tested Stars goaltender Marty Turco with 41 shots.

“Those guys are a great skating club, just the skill that they have,” said Turco.

“It’s tough to contain them entirely, but for me it doesn’t matter how many shots or where from, it’s just doing my part and helping to make a difference for this team.”

Philippe Boucher (5, Zubov, Modano) got the Stars going by whistling a shot over the left shoulder of Ducks goaltender JS Giguere from the right face-off dot at 13:48 of the first period.  Jere Lehtinen’s (9, Morrow, Zubov) power play goal at 14:38 of the first would prove to be the eventual game-winner for Dallas.

“I don’t think we played with enough desperation early in the game and it cost us, said Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle. 

“It’s not like we played extremely poorly, but we don’t seem to be able to provide enough offense to give ourselves a sense of accomplishment. That’s really frustrating for our players.”

In the second period, Giguere left the game with a muscle cramp and was replaced by Ilya Bryzgalov.  Bill Guerin (5, Jokinen, Kapanen) beat Bryzgalov shortly after the  young goaltender  took over in net to give the Stars a 3-0 lead.

Ducks rookie Jonathan Hedstrom (4, S. Niedermayer, Salei) gave the Ducks life at 7:17 of the third period with his fourth goal of the season.

“They got a couple of goals early and we’ve just got to keep battling,” said Ducks Assistant Captain Rob Niedermayer.

“You have letups against a team like Dallas and you’re not going to be successful. We came back in the third and played well, but that’s the same story. We’ve got to play like that for 60 minutes.”

With Bryzgalov pulled for the extra skater with two minutes to play, the Ducks could not convert on the power play as they attacked the Stars six-on-four.

“We seem to be searching for some form of spark.  We’re not winning enough of those confrontations to give us a little bit of an edge,” said Carlyle.

The Stars and Ducks will meet again on Wednesday at 7:30 PM at the Arrowhead Pond.