DALLAS — Roope Hintz and Alexander Radulov scored power-play goals on Dallas’ first two shots, and the Stars chased Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne with an early four-goal onslaught, beating the Predators 5-1 Wednesday night and evening the best-of-seven series at two games each.
Hintz added his second career playoff goal in the second period, on John Kingberg’s third assist of the game.
Ben Bishop stopped 34 shots. Bishop allowed a couple of soft goals in Game 3 in his home playoff debut with Dallas, when the Predators won their second consecutive game after the Stars won the series opener in Nashville.
Game 5 is Saturday in Nashville.
The Stars were 1 of 13 on the power play in the first three games of the Western Conference playoff series, but went 3 of 4 in the first period of Game 4. It was the first time they scored three power-play goals in one period of a playoff game since moving to Dallas before the 1993-94 season.
Andrew Cogliano and Mats Zuccarello also scored as part of the Stars’ four goals in eight shots against Rinne, before he was replaced by Juuse Saros less than 14 minutes into the game. Rinne, who started his 87th consecutive playoff game for Nashville, had stopped 40 of 42 shots in Game 3.
It was the third goal of the series for Zuccarello.
Dallas led 1-0 when Hintz scored on a pass from Klingberg only 3:42 into the game. The Stars were back on the power play only 90 seconds later, and converted again when Radulov got his second goal of the series .
The Stars had scored only 39 goals in the first period all season — through 82 regular-season games and then had none in the first three games of this series that were all decided by one goal.
Nashville hadn’t allowed three power-play goals in a single period this season, or faced a four-goal deficit after the first period.
The Predators didn’t score until more than eight minutes into the third period, when Roman Josi shot from the slot in the middle of the circles. The puck whizzed to the right of Bishop, who had a lot of traffic in front of him.
Saros stopped 20 of 21 shots.
NOTES: Josi has two goals in this series. In 32 career regular-season games against Dallas, Josi has 10 goals and 15 assists. The only team he has more goals against is Colorado, with 11 in 32 games. … Dallas scored four goals in one period for the first time in its last 33 playoff games — since a 5-2 win over San Jose on April 27, 2008. The franchise record is five. The North Stars had two five-goal periods, the last in April 1994, against St. Louis. …. The Predators lost in Dallas for the first time this season, after going 3-0 in the regular season and also winning Game 3. … Dallas snapped a four-game home playoff losing streak. … Bishop played 36 playoff games for Tampa Bay in 2014-15 and 2015-16, when the Lightning lost in the Stanley Cup Final, and the following season finished their season in the Eastern Conference final.
UP NEXT
The series switches to Nashville for Game 5 on Saturday afternoon, then back to Dallas for Game 6 on Monday night.
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