OTTAWA -- - One year to the day after he was acquired in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Dion Phaneuf made it an anniversary to remember.

The veteran defenseman scored a drought-stopping, shorthanded goal and was a key member of a penalty-killing unit that was a perfect 6-for-6 as the Ottawa Senators defeated the Dallas Stars 3-2 at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday night.

"It felt good," Phaneuf said of his seventh of the season, which gave the Senators the first lead and they had been blanked in the previous two outings. "The bottom line is we won, and it's a huge win for us. Now we've got to move forward."

Mark Stone scored the winner and Chris Kelly was credited with the other Ottawa goal while he sat on the bench and watched Stars forward Jiri Hudler back pass the puck into his own net, while goalie Kari Lehtonen sat on the bench during a delayed penalty.

"Very efficient, I am. No shots, no pluses, and a goal," quipped Kelly. "At first I thought the D-man was going to get it, but then I think he quickly realized 'I'm not getting this puck', so then he kind of stopped.

"It's just one of those things that you never see. You never see that."

Said Hudler: "I was on my backhand. I turned around and right away I knew. In a game like this, it's a mistake, but it's not like I wanted to put it in my own net. It's unfortunate. I was just trying to make a play and keep the puck alive. I think we've all seen it before, a couple of times. I don't know what to say."

Goalie Mike Condon returned to the net after a one-game break to make 31 saves and improve the Senators record to 28-18-6.

Jamie Benn and Antoine Roussel replied for the Stars, who lost their fourth in a row and fell to 21-24-10.

Lehtonen stopped 16 shots between the Dallas pipes.

The Senators led 2-0 despite being outshot 12-6 in the first period.

"I think we have picked almost every way of losing so far, including shooting one in your own net," said Stars coach Lindy Ruff. "So it is frustrating.

"We went in and talked about winning the second period to get us back in the game and we did that. In the end, we just couldn't push through and they got a little bit of a bounce and ended up scoring."

The Stars scored the only two goals of the second despite being outshot 14-11.

"Hockey is weird," said Senators coach Guy Boucher.

"We came back and tied it up. All we had to do was win 20 minutes of hockey and all that other stuff is a non-factor," said Benn. "Just because we lost we can look back at that and blame it on that (own-goal), but things like that happen in a hockey game and we should have just come out in the third and won the game."

Instead, Stone made a strong individual play, rushing the puck into the Dallas zone, dropping a pass to Cody Ceci, picking up the loose puck after it was shot wide and scoring on a wraparound.

"It hit the mesh and just landed perfectly for me," said Stone, who took over the team scoring lead with his 19th of the season. "It was awesome. I'll take those any day."

Boucher had plenty of praise for Phaneuf, who was in Benn's face throughout the game, including a first-period fight.

"All day he was very enthusiastic, very positive. You could see that he was looking forward to this game," said Boucher. "He got on the ice and right away challenged Benn, and they're going at it, with the captain. He scores the big goal, they get into a fight. He really set the tone for a character game. I think today he was the big leader."

The Senators next play the New York Islanders in a Saturday afternoon home game. The Stars return home to face Carolina on Saturday.

NOTES: The Senators went with an alignment of seven defensemen and 11 forwards. To do that, RW Chris Neil was scratched for the fourth time in six games and RW Curtis Lazar was scratched for the second game in a row and third time in five games. ... Senators D Fredrik Claesson played after spending the previous three games in the press box. ... Senators D Dion Phaneuf was acquired exactly one year ago from the Toronto Maple Leafs. ... Stars LW Curtis McKenzie was scratched for the second consecutive game and fourth time in the last five. ... The Stars scratched D Julius Honka for the fourth game in a row. ... Stars C Jason Spezza, a former Senators captain, missed the game with an upper body injury.