DALLAS -- Jamie Benn scored his 40th goal, Antti Niemi made 31 saves and the Dallas Stars beat the Arizona Coyotes 4-1 on Thursday night to move two points ahead in the Western Conference race.
Dallas (103 points) pulled away from second-place St. Louis (101). The Stars have four games remaining, and the Blues have five.
The loss eliminated the Coyotes from playoff contention.
Arizona's Martin Hanzal scored the game's first goal 17:07 into the first period, but Dallas tied it less than a minute later on Patrick Eaves' 10th goal.