Dallas Stars Mount Comeback, but Fall Short to Minnesota Wild

The Dallas Stars scored three goals in 3:31 to end the second period, but lost to the Minnesota Wild in overtime Friday night at the American Airlines Center. They did, however, earn a valuable point in a game that they trailed 2-0 after the first period and 3-0 in the second and their resilience was ever-present.

Recap

The first period was all Minnesota Wild as the Dallas Stars sat back and watched them score two goals. The first came from Nino Niederreiter, which was then followed by a Jason Zucker tally. The Stars only managed to have 9 shots through the first twenty minutes and they were playing uncharacteristically throughout its entirety. Both goals against were scored from within feet of Kari Lehtonen due to Dallas players not being defensively responsible. The Wild took the 2-0 lead into the first intermission.

The second period looked better, but Minnesota’s Mikael Granlund scored at 11:47 to put the Wild up 3-0. At this point the game seemed out of reach for Dallas; however, less than five minutes later Ales Hemsky scored his first goal as a Star to put Dallas back in the game. About a minute and a half later Tyler Seguin netted his NHL leading 18th goal of the season to put Dallas within one, and a minute after that Erik Cole got his fifth of the year with 10.2 seconds remaining in the period to tie the game 3-3. At that point nearly every fan in the building was on their feet and the Dallas Stars looked to have immense momentum going into the third period.

In the start of the third both the Wild and the Stars had chances, but no one converted until Alex Goligoski picked a corner perfectly to get his first goal of the season and put the Stars up 4-3 with just under 12 minutes remaining. Then in the last two minutes of regulation the Wild pulled starting goalie Darcy Kuemper to have the extra man in the offensive zone and Thomas Vanek converted on a miscue by Stars captain Jamie Benn to tie the game at four all.

Dallas didn’t manage to have a registered shot on goal during the overtime period, while Minnesota’s Marco Scandella scored his fifth of the season on an odd man rush against the Stars to win it for the Wild 5-4 in overtime.

Thoughts and Observations

Milestones

Secondary scoring finally made its way into the Dallas Stars game as both forward Ales Hemsky and defenseman Alex Goligoski netted their first goals of the season. Hemsky’s goal was the 500th point of his NHL career. Defenseman Jyrki Jokipakka also hit a milestone as he earned his first NHL point with an assist on Seguin’s second period tally. Fellow d-man Jason Demers reached the 100 point milestone in his NHL career with an assist on Cole’s goal. All around tonight’s match-up proved to be beneficial for individuals on the Stars, even though the end result was less than desirable.

Lonely Lehtonen

All five goals against could’ve been avoided if the Dallas Stars were defensively responsible and covering their man; however, that wasn’t the case and Lehtonen was left again and again to face off one on one against Wild players. In order to be successful in the NHL it is necessary that forwards and defensemen follow the play and work hard to get back into their defensive zone to prevent odd man situations or quality scoring opportunities, but Dallas failed to do so tonight and it cost them the extra point.

Necessary Changes

Moving forward the Stars can learn from this loss and hopefully make the necessary adjustments to improve. They reduced their shots against, only giving up 34 through 63 minutes, while simultaneously increasing their own shot totals managing an impressive 45 through regulation and overtime. Defensively Dallas needs to be more aware of where the opposing players are and be sure to get back to help out. They desperately need to find a solution to their habit of giving up leads in the third period to ensure they get the full two points out of games, especially those in which they have the lead. Offensively they got on the right track incorporating secondary scoring, but it needs to continue for Dallas to be successful given that it’s nearly impossible that Seguin will keep up his current scoring pace.

Overall the Stars could’ve won the game had they managed a more successful first period, but their ability to keep with it and give themselves an opportunity to win is something to be admired and getting a point in this league is better than going home empty-handed.

Thanks for reading! Make sure to check back for a preview and post game analysis tomorrow as the Stars take on the struggling Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center!