Stars' balanced attack leads to win over struggling Blues

Wyatt Johnston had a goal and an assist for the visiting Dallas Stars as they defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-1 Monday.

Ty Dellandrea, Miro Heiskanen and Jason Robertson also scored for the Stars and Jamie Benn had two assists.

Scott Wedgewood made 23 saves to earn the victory starting in place of Jake Oettinger, who sat out the game due to illness.

Brandon Saad scored and Jordan Binnington made 20 saves for the Blues, who lost for the third time in four games (1-3-0).

The Stars carried the play for much of the first period and earned the best scoring chance. Robertson's blast from the right circle caromed to the weak side to Joe Pavelski, who backhanded a shot off of the right post.

Blues picked up their pace and got their own scoring opportunity with a 3-on-1 break. But Wedgewood slid to his left to glove Pavel Buchnevich's shot from the right wing.

The second period opened with a flurry of back-and-forth rushes. After Brayden Schenn missed the net off the break for the Blues, Johnston scored from the slot off the rush to put the Stars up 1-0 at the 3:51 mark.

After Ryan Suter broke up a 2-on-1 Blues rush, Benn got a partial breakaway. But Binnington stopped his shot to keep St. Louis within a goal.

On a 3-on-2 Blues rush, Vladimir Tarasenko set up a slot shot for Buchnevich from close range. But his shot grazed the post.

Dallas pushed its lead to 2-0 off another rush, this time with a three-man weave with Dellandrea converting Johnston's pass to the right post about eight minutes into the third period.

The Blues cut the lead to 2-1 off a harmless-looking dump-in. Josh Leivo sent the puck behind the Dallas net, then intercepted Wedgewood's clearing attempt along the left wall. He fired a pass to Saad for his redirection goal with 6:43 left to play.

Robertson made it 3-1 by blocking a shot, racing up the right wing to reach the puck and beat Binnington.

Heiskanen's empty-net goal iced the game.