ANAHEIM, Calif. – Jason Arnott tallied his sixth career hat trick as the Dallas Stars beat the Ducks, 4-2 on Wednesday night.

The victory was the Stars’ second over the Ducks this week.  Dallas bested Anaheim 3-1 at the Arrowhead Pond on Sunday evening.

On Sunday, the Ducks struggled early, giving up two goals in a 50 second span in the first period.  On Wednesday night, it was the third period that cost the Ducks the hockey game.

“We have to be better. We keep saying it, so there’s really not much else to say,” said Ducks captain Scott Niedermayer.

“There was some of it out there today, but that third period was not the way to do it. We weren’t quite where we needed to be.”

After Arnott’s first goal of the contest (6, Morrow, Guerin) at 5:30 of the first period, the Ducks rallied back with two-straight goals to take a 2-1 lead at the end of one period.

Travis Moen tied the game (2, S. Niedermayer, Lupul) at 10:15 of the first period by crashing the net and getting the puck past Dallas netminder Marty Turco.

Scott Niedmayer would beat Turco (2, R. Niedermayer, Lupul) on the power play at 15:16 of the first period.  Niedermayer caught a pass from brother Rob on the right wing and got a backhand shot under the crossbar and over Turco’s shoulder to give the Ducks the lead.

In the second, the game remained scoreless thanks to Ducks goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov who made 15 stops in the period including tremendous saves on Stars captain Mike Modano and left wing Brendan Morrow.

“I think the undisciplined penalties that we took really started to take its toll,” said Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle.

“You can’t continue to kill that many penalties. Those are situations that come back to haunt you because your personnel gets worn down. We called upon our goaltender too many times.”

Arnott and company would take over for Dallas in the third period as the Ducks attempted to kill four Dallas power plays, including two 5 on 3’s.

After a turnover at the point by the Ducks on the power play, Morrow streaked down the left wing and fed Arnott (7, Morrow) for his second goal of the game, shorthanded, at 8:17 of the third.

Jere Lehtinen (10, Jokinen, Robidas) would score the eventual game-winner just 60 seconds later with his team-leading tenth goal of the season.

Arnott would complete the hat trick (8, Morrow, Barnes) at 18:39 of the third period to seal the victory for Dallas.

“The first 30 minutes we were with it and we played the game we have to play, but it got away from us. We can’t continue to take penalties like that,” said Carlyle.

“The sun’s gonna come up tomorrow.”