DALLAS — Valeri Nichushkin had a goal and an assist on his 21st birthday, and the Stars stopped a four-game slide with a 4-2 victory over the Devils on Friday night.

Vernon Fiddler, Jason Spezza and Colton Sceviour also scored for Dallas, and Kari Lehtonen made 18 saves. Fiddler’s short-handed score into an empty net with 20 seconds left was his 100th career goal.

The Devils have lost seven of nine. Adam Henrique and Devante Smith-Pelly scored for the Devils, and Cory Schneider had 15 saves before leaving at 2:05 of the third due to an injury. Keith Kinkaid made six saves.

Devils coach John Hynes said he didn’t have much of an update on Schneider.

“We’ll have to see what the evaluation is on him and see where he is in a couple days,” he said.

Fiddler’s milestone goal came 12 seconds after Johnny Oduya went off for hooking. With Kinkaid pulled, New Jersey had a good chance to score with six skaters to Dallas’ four.

“We were just light on the puck,” Hynes said. “May have been the difference of getting a point out of the game or two points out of the game right there.”

The Devils remained tied for ninth place in the Eastern Conference, five points away from the second wild card.

With about a month left in the season, Dallas, Chicago and St. Louis are locked up in a tough race for the Central Division title. The Stars (39-20-7) and Blackhawks (40-21-5) each have 85 points, and the Blues (37-20-9) have 83.

Nichushkin scored his ninth goal at 8:01 of the first period. He took a pass from Mattias Janmark in the neutral zone, skated down the right side, crossed in front of Schneider and slid the puck into the lower left corner of the net.

The Devils nearly had a tying goal with 2 seconds left in the first. The puck came to Henrique in front. He tried a backhand, but Lehtonen trapped the puck between his left arm and his side.

The teams exchanged goals in a 71-second stretch of the second.

Henrique tied it at 1 with his 23rd goal at 5:14. Lehtonen was out of position with a scramble near the goal, and Henrique flipped a backhand into the upper right corner.

At 6:25, Janmark set up another goal. Spezza redirected Janmark’s pass from the left corner past Schneider.

The lead grew to 3-1 at 11:24 when Sceviour deflected in Alex Goligoski’s shot from the top of the slot.

Smith-Pelly’s goal came with 4:19 to play. He tapped in Damon Severson’s pass across the goalmouth.