Jamie Benn is back on track.That's good news for the streaking Dallas Stars.Benn, the Stars captain, had just one goal through the first 20 games of the season. But he has scored three in the past two games and looks to continue that trend when Dallas plays host to the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night.The Stars are riding a nine-game point streak (8-0-1) and are 11-1-1 in their past 13 games."Guys are coming out of their shells. Everyone is contributing," Benn said after scoring twice Tuesday in a 6-1 victory against the Vancouver Canucks that opened a four-game homestand. "That's why we're successful as of late, and we're going to continue doing that." Benn snapped a career-worst 15-game drought without a goal when he scored the overtime winner Saturday in a 5-4 victory against Edmonton.The line of Benn, Justin Dowling and Tyler Seguin has combined for 16 points in the four games it has been together."I can't say that I envisioned that; the credit goes to them," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said.Dowling, a 29-year-old center, was scoreless in his first 34 NHL games over three seasons before scoring three in the past four."They're super easy to play with," Dowling said of Benn and Seguin. "They're elite players and you see what they can do once they're feeling it and they have some confidence going. It's pretty unstoppable and I think you can plug anyone in and play with them. I'm fortunate enough to be the guy right now that's playing with them, and just going to roll with it as long as I can." Montgomery praised Dowling's mental approach."I like his brain. He understands timing and time and space," Montgomery said. "He knows how to get open off of them and knows how to give them the puck when they're in good positions." The Jets won 2-1 at Nashville on Tuesday as Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers scored and Connor Hellebuyck made 38 saves. Winnipeg has won three straight and is 7-1-1 in its past nine games."I thought everyone from top to bottom played real good game," Hellebuyck said. "We stuck together, we grinded hard and we battled. I thought everyone brought their 'A' game (Tuesday)." Laine, who had scored just once in his previous 14 games, gave the Jets the lead just 18 seconds into the game."I think we wanted to have a good start," Laine said. "We wanted to play the first 10 (minutes) hard. Maybe if we don't score, we still want to play hard. So that was a great start. We kind of needed that one. It was a great pass by (Kyle Connor) and a pretty easy job to put it in." The Jets are 8-3-0 on the road this season, including five straight wins, and are 4-1-0 against Central Division opponents.Ehlers, whose second-period goal was his 10th of the season and 100th of his career, praised Hellebuyck."He's standing on his head right now and it feels good for everyone in the room," Ehlers said. "In the third period, we gave them a lot more than we wanted to, but when you've got a goalie like that who stops everything, it's a little more calming." --Field Level Media
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