Stars Score Five, Lose to Flyers in Overtime

The Dallas Stars suffered their second overtime/shootout loss of the season, this time at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers. Despite four-point efforts from both Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza, the Flyers rallied from two down at the second intermission to win it with a power play goal from Claude Giroux with 2:11 left in the extra frame. Neither team looked particularly sharp, as turnovers and sloppy defense were prevalent all evening. The Stars dropped to 2-1-2, and the Flyers picked up their first win and improved to 1-2-2.

Recap

The Stars were down a defenseman right off the bat, as Patrik Nemeth left for the locker room in the second minute. His arm was incidentally lacerated by an opponent’s skate, and he would not return. Trevor Daley opened the scoring with his first of two power play goals, taking a pass across the middle from Tyler Seguin. The lead wouldn’t last for long, as two minutes later Sean Couturier knocked in a fat rebound from Andrew MacDonald‘s shot from the point. Soon after that, the Flyers took the lead as Brayden Schenn found a goal nearly identical to the first. He grabbed the rebound off a shot from brother Luke Schenn.

The second period belonged to the Stars, who would take a 4-2 lead into the third. Erik Cole scored on a slick pass across the ice from Shawn Horcoff. Seguin and Spezza would assist again on Daley’s second power play goal, after Philly’s second too-many-men penalty. A minute later, the pair would assist again, as Spezza found Jamie Benn unguarded in the low slot with 31 seconds left in the period. Goalie Ray Emery replaced Steve Mason (four goals allowed on 18 shots) after the intermission.

The Flyers finally killed a penalty on their third try, getting the stop after Matt Read was sent away for boarding against Ryan Garbutt. After MacDonald’s power play goal brought the Flyers within one, the Stars would surrender, re-take, and then surrender the lead again in a span of two minutes. The second equalizer was deflected off of Daley’s skate by Michael Raffl, one of many lucky bounces for the Flyers on the night. Jamie Benn was called for an iffy covering the puck call with 3 seconds left in regulation, and the Flyers headed to overtime with virtually an entire two-minute power play.

After Benn’s return from the bin, the Stars returned to the penalty kill after the final wonky bounce of the night: Daley had no choice but to mug Brayden Schenn as the puck caromed right into Schenn’s wheelhouse at five feet while Kari Lehtonen was out of position. That was it for the Stars, as Giroux went five-hole on Lehtonen and the Flyers breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Thoughts and Observations

Bounces aren’t always going to go the Stars’ way, but that still doesn’t excuse six goals allowed. I counted four times tonight when the puck was essentially motionless and less than five feet from a wide open net. That’s gotta be cleaned up.

Ruff has been showing a lot of Benn, Seguin, and Spezza on the ice together. It’s worked in the limited sample so far, but it’s also kind of like saying, “hey fellas, we’re only really trying to score every third shift or so.” Hopefully that’ll even out when Valeri Nichushkin returns.

Jason Spezza is like the John Stockton of hockey. I’ll let you determine who gets to be Karl Malone.

In his NHL debut, Stars forward Curtis McKenzie registered one shot and lead the team in hits with four.

Kari Lehtonen is now 0-11-2 lifetime against Philadelphia.

Tonight’s game featured Antoine Roussel and Pierre-Édouard Bellemare, the only two active French-born players in the NHL.

Thanks for reading, and check Blackout Dallas for coverage of Tuesday night’s matchup with the Vancouver Canucks!