"Kari Lehtonen joked Monday after a long solo workout that he still had some work to do on his conditioning.

"I'm still in office worker shape," he said with a smile.

Well, then the sky should be the limit for the Stars' new goalie if he ever gets into professional athlete shape.

Lehtonen stopped 34 shots Tuesday and led Dallas to a 3-1 victory over the Nashville Predators, stopping their six-game winning streak and giving himself three victories in his last four starts. Lehtonen provided a strong backbone for a Stars team that appeared out of sorts early and ended up being out-shot, 35-14.

"Kari was great," Stars coach Marc Crawford said. "Obviously, when you get a goaltending performance like that, it builds confidence in your group."

The Stars were under siege early and had trouble controlling the puck in their own zone. Mike Ribeiro had a particularly rough start and ended up going 1-for-15 in the faceoff circle. But with Lehtonen turning away everything he saw and keeping his rebounds to a minimum, the game was scoreless through one period.

"It was good to see some shots because it gets you into the game," Lehtonen said. "And then, after that, we did a good job of getting to rebounds and preventing second shots, and we worked together well as a team. That was a good thing for me." "