Polak’s shot from the right point for a 1-0 lead at 3:12 of the second.“It felt good just to contribute,” Cogliano said. “At thi

DALLAS (AP) — First-year Dallas Stars coach Jim Montgomery called out the franchise for a “culture of mediocrity Marian Hossa Jersey Womens ,” led a feedback-sharing session with players and briefly benched one of his top-scoring forwards.And this was all in less than a week, not long after team CEO Jim Lites profanely ripped the performances of captain Jamie Benn and fellow high-priced forward Tyler Seguin.While they will never say Lites’ somewhat shocking comments about his highest-profile and most expensive players have anything to do with it, the Stars clearly are eager to escape a rut of missing the playoffs in eight of the past 10 seasons. Dallas has a precarious hold on one of the final two Western Conference playoff spots at the All-Star break.“Right now we’re getting challenged as a group and individually,” forward Jason Spezza told The Associated Press. “As a veteran guy, it’s exciting because it means they want us to push and they’re not happy with where we’re at. When you’re older, you’re trying to win now. You’re not really worried about the future. I like the way the message is going to help us win now.”Perhaps it’s easier for Spezza to pick a word such as “exciting” because the 35-year-old player, now in his 16th season, wasn’t the target of Lites’ rant late last month.The longtime team executive sought out some of the reporters who cover the team regularly and used plenty of profanity along with “terrible” and “embarrassing” to describe the play of Benn and Seguin. Lites turned down an AP request for an interview Thursday.Asked what he made of the events of the few weeks that started with Lites’ bombshell, Benn smiled through apparent disdain for the question and said, “Nothing.” Seguin wasn’t available to reporters after the last practice, morning skate and game before the team’s seven-day break.The day after the criticism from Lites, Benn and Seguin said they needed to play better while taking issue with some of Lites’ more pointed jabs. Both said they played for their teammates, not Lites.“We’re trying to push the envelope,” Montgomery said. “Everybody is, from their respective positions Womens Evander Kane Jersey , and trying to make us better and trying to get more consistent at what we are.”Montgomery met with players and the coaching staff on Jan. 14, the same day Dallas traded young forward Devin Shore to Anaheim for 12-year veteran Andrew Cogliano, a move to add experience and speed.Three days later, Montgomery benched Alexander Radulov for the last half of the first period after the Russian forward said he talked back to the coach. In that 2-1 loss to the last-place Los Angeles Kings, the Stars came within 64 seconds of getting shut out in two straight games, both at home, for the first time in 20 years. He wasn’t very happy five nights earlier either after a second straight loss to an also-ran, 3-1 to St. Louis at home following a 2-1 defeat at Philadelphia.The coach making the rare transition from college to the pros wasn’t scathing with his comments on the level of Lites, but his reaction was notable nonetheless.“Two games in a row where we don’t compete at a level that is acceptable, and it is everybody and unfortunately, I am very frustrated that I have not been able to gain consistency in our performance and I haven’t been able to change the culture of mediocrity,” Montgomery said.Lites picked Benn and Seguin because he believed they were underperforming for a team falling short of expectations, and because Lites said he had the support of equally frustrated owner Tom Gaglardi.It also had a lot to do with money. Benn is on an eight-year, $76 million contract that started in July 2016, and Seguin signed an eight-year Authentic Joe Pavelski Jersey , $79 million extension before this season that kicks in for 2019-20.While Benn and Seguin are tied for the team lead with 18 goals apiece, neither is in the top 40 in the NHL in points after both finished among the 25 best their first five seasons together. This is also the first time at least one of the two didn’t make the All-Star game since they’ve been teammates.The timing of Lites’ comments was curious, with Dallas in the playoff picture and coming off a 2-0 win at Nashville that was notable for backup goalie Anton Khudobin’s club record for saves in a shutout with 49.General manager Jim Nill said he agreed with the message , although not with the use of profanity. Then came the “mediocrity” line from his third coach in three seasons .“My biggest thing is, what’s our identity?” Nill said. “We’ve seen we can be fast. We’ve seen we can be a heavy, hard team. Are we that? Or are we a mix of that? That’s what we have to find out right now. And it’s the consistency of the game.”Consistency is what Montgomery seeks. The question is how many more times the quest will be displayed in such raw terms for everyone to see.“I think it’s a coach trying to push buttons and trying to figure out how to get us from being the middle team to being a team that’s comfortably in the playoffs and looking for bigger things,” Spezza said. “It wasn’t a shock at all to me because we all feel like we’re trying to push the right buttons to get this group to take another step.” DALLAS (AP) — Tyler Seguin didn’t like what he saw on the scoreboard at the second intermission, and he did his best to change that.Seguin scored two goals in the final eight minutes, lifting the Dallas Stars over the Minnesota Wild 3-1 on Friday night.“I thought after 40 minutes we deserved to win that game,” Seguin said.The game was still tied at 1 when Mattias Janmark took the puck along the boards in the neutral zone and passed across the blue line to Seguin. His slap shot from the top of the right faceoff circle went under Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk and trickled into the net with 7:42 left.“I saw the puck coming,” Dubnyk said. “I went straight down. I didn’t pull up. I didn’t open up. It’s a save you need to make. Obviously, you want to come up with that save in a 1-1 game.”Seguin added an empty-net goal, his team-high 20th of the season, with 24 seconds to play. The Stars won their third in a row and stopped the Wild’s three-game winning streak to pass Minnesota for third place in the Central Division.“That was a playoff game tonight,” Dallas coach Jim Montgomery said. “It was a big focal point going into the third: ‘Let’s win the net-front battle and be in third place.’ Our will was great.”Ben Bishop followed a shutout win on Wednesday with a 21-save effort against the Wild. He protected the lead by stopping a backhand attempt by Marcus Foligno with 6:25 remaining.Dubnyk finished with 29 saves.Wild coach Bruce Boudreau noted the narrow margin of victory.“One mistake here http://www.sanjosesharksteamshop.com/authentic-joe-thornton-jersey ,” Boudreau said. “Zach (Parise) misses a net where Bishop falls and is out of the net and they come down and score, and that’s the difference in the game.”Bishop is part of a defense that has allowed only seven goals in the past five games. The Stars’ 129 goals allowed are second in the league behind the Islanders.“That’s what we are,” Montgomery said. “If you have the defense, you’re always going to be in every game.”Dallas’ Andrew Cogliano and Minnesota’s Brad Hunt scored in the second period, which ended 1-all.Cogliano tipped in Roman Polak’s shot from the right point for a 1-0 lead at 3:12 of the second.“It felt good just to contribute,” Cogliano said. “At this point, it doesn’t matter who scores, it’s all about the win.”That goal ended a drought of 74 minutes, 33 seconds without a score by either team in Dallas’ two most recent games. When Cogliano went off with a high-sticking double minor two minutes later, those were the first penalties by either team in 75:06 of ice time in the same games.Hunt tied the game at 8:48 of the second during the power play for Cogliano’s second penalty.NOTES: Cogliano’s fourth goal of the season was his first for the Stars in five games since being acquired from Anaheim in a trade on Jan. 14. … The Wild were playing for the first time in nine days. … Dallas C Jason Dickinson left Wednesday’s game with a lower-body injury and is expected to miss both games this weekend. … Minnesota LW Pontus Aberg (lower-body injury) left the game in the second period. … Wild C Matt Hendricks played in his 600th NHL game. … Entering the game, Minnesota led the Stars by one point in the standings, with the difference the Wild’s point for an overtime loss vs. Dallas. Minnesota’s goal differential was 0, and Dallas was at minus-1. The teams had split the first two meetings. Dallas has six goals in the three games between the teams and the Wild have five.UP NEXTWild: Return home Saturday to play Chicago.Stars: Play the second game of a back-to-back at Nashville on Saturday.