CALGARY — On a night Dallas lost starting goaltender Ben Bishop to injury, Anton Khudobin took over and the Stars never missed a beat.
Miro Heiskanen scored the winner and Bishop and Khudobin combined for 35 stops in a 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Wednesday, the Stars' sixth consecutive road win.
Play was blown dead with Bishop down on his knees in obvious discomfort at 13:22 of the second. He skated off the ice under his own power but went straight to the dressing room.
The six-foot-seven goaltender appeared to wince earlier in the period after dropping into the butterfly and shuffling across his crease to track a shot.
"(Bishop) made some great saves in the first 30 minutes and (Khudobin) made some great saves in the third. They're making the saves they're called upon, and we're not asking them to make secondary saves sprawling out," said Dallas coach Jim Montgomery.
No update was available on his condition. Bishop has missed games to injury three separate times this season, most recently missing two games in mid-March. Montgomery said he suspected tonight's injury was related to the last one, but didn't know for sure.
Alexander Radulov also scored for the Stars (40-31-6), who swept the three-game season series against Calgary.
Currently holding down the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference, Dallas moved within four points of St. Louis for third in the Central Division. The Blues hold a game in hand.
"There's good teams behind us and we want to catch the good teams in front of us. It's important to keep on going and finish this regular season out strong," said Stars captain Jamie Benn.
TJ Brodie scored the lone goal for Calgary (47-23-7). The Flames' lead over San Jose atop the Pacific Division, as well as the conference, remains at six points. The Sharks hold a game in hand.
With 15 saves in relief, Khudobin got the win to improve to 14-16-4. Bishop had 20 stops.
David Rittich made 21 saves for the Flames. The loss drops his record to 26-8-5.
The only goal of the opening two periods came at 17:26 of the first on a power play on a pretty individual effort from Radulov, aided by some poor defending by the Flames.
Picking up the puck behind his own net, Radulov slowly carried the puck up ice uncontested. As he approached the Flames blue-line, he stickhandled right through the closely-bunched Calgary trio of Mark Jankowski, Elias Lindholm and Brodie with relative ease and strolled in alone on Rittich, beating him through the pads with a move to his backhand.
"I just went through the middle and I think the puck bounced over their sticks and I just continued to skate and ended up on a breakaway," said Radulov.
That goal was part of an early theme for Calgary, suggested the frustrated the Flames coach.
"Our level of desperation needs to increase across the board," said Bill Peters. "All three zones, 200 feet, their D are blowing by us in the first five minutes like crazy and jumping by us in the rush. It's almost as if we were unaware."
The Stars made it 2-0 on a second power-play goal at 12:24 of the third with Heiskanen scoring from a scramble. Dallas finished a perfect 2 for 2 with the extra man.
Brodie finally got Calgary on the scoreboard at 18:28 of the third, converting a Johnny Gaudreau rebound.
"It's playing harder. You can get looks throughout a game, but you don't count looks on the scoreboard. We've got to get to the net, we've got to get in the crease," said Flames centre Sean Monahan, who has two goals in his last 19 games.
The NHL's highest-scoring team at home, Calgary has mustered just one goal in the first two games of a three-game homestand. The Flames lost 3-0 to Los Angeles on Monday.
"We've got to get used to playing in games like this as that's how it's going to be," said Calgary captain Mark Girodano. "Very rarely, do you see high-scoring games in the playoffs."
Notes: Dallas improves to 29-1-2 when leading after two periods... The Stars have won six straight games against Calgary... Sam Bennett (upper body) missed his fifth game in the last six. He could play on Friday.
Darren Haynes, The Canadian Press
