Jason Spezza, Stars Even Series with Crucial Game 4 Win vs. Blues

The Dallas Stars scored four unanswered goals en route to beating the St. Louis Blues 4-2 in Game 4 of their NHL Western Conference semifinal playoff series.

Jason Dickinson kicked off Dallas' four-goal spurt, which occurred in a 26:05 span over the first two periods:

Jason Spezza, John Klingberg and Roope Hintz also scored for Dallas. Ben Bishop finished with 27 saves.

Robert Thomas and Vladimir Tarasenko netted the goals for the Blues, who are tied two games apiece with the Stars in the best-of-seven matchup.

Tarasenko's snipe just 5:02 into the first period seemed like it would set the tone for the rest of the game:

That didn't occur, however. The Stars dominated the action, outshooting the Blues 26-17 through the first two periods and winning 35 of 59 faceoffs overall.

None of the Stars' goals were more important than Spezza's power-play score to give the Stars a 2-1 lead with 52 seconds remaining in the first frame:

Spezza undoubtedly deserved his goal after a picture-perfect shot, but the penalty leading to the power play came under question.

At 17:15 of the first period, Blues center Tyler Bozak was called for interference on a pick play in front of the Stars net.

Thomas Welch of Respect the Note and Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch expressed doubts regarding the penalty's legitimacy:

Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News and Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun did not do the same, however:

The Stars took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission and extended that advantage to 3-1 when Klingberg went top shelf at 9:26 of the second period:

A St. Louis turnover set up the goal, which symbolized the Blues' sloppy performance:

Hintz then joined the top-shelf party after a pretty pass from Alexander Radulov at 17:28:

At that juncture, the wheels had officially fallen off the Blues' Game 4 efforts. Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic noted the team's disorganization:

Frustration may have boiled over for Blues goalie Jordan Binnington, who gave Stars netminder Ben Bishop and left wing Jamie Benn some parting gifts before going into the locker room for the second intermission:

The Blues didn't go away quietly, as Robert Thomas knocked home a goal off the crossbar with 6:16 remaining:

However, the Blues accrued only two shots on goal for the remainder of the game. 

St. Louis will host Game 5 on Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET. NBCSN will televise the contest.