Dallas Stars Lose To NHL’s Worst Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 – Post Game
By Josh Clark
The Dallas Stars went into the First Niagara Center on Saturday night with high expectations that they could pull out a win against the league’s worst team and get back in the playoff race. But that did not happen, and the Dallas Stars lost to the Buffalo Sabres by a score of 3-2.
Game recap
The Dallas Stars started out with a hefty amount of firepower, particularly on the offensive side of the puck. The Stars took six shots in the first four minutes of the game, while the Sabres did not find their first chance against Anders Lindback until 5:49 into the first period. Ales Hemsky took an unnoticed high stick in the lips during an offensive rush and immediately went down the tunnel with blood dripping from his mouth. He did not return for the rest of the first period. With 1:43 remaining in the first period, the Dallas Stars defense took a little break from offense and let the Sabres creep into their zone. At that point, Tyler Myers found some open space and sent a shot sailing past Lindback high on the far side, grabbing the lead for Buffalo. Chris Stewart and Zemgus Girgensons were credited with the assists. At 1:00 left in the first, Antoine Roussel was yanked to the ice by Torrey Mitchell while chasing a loose puck, but nothing was called. In retaliation to that, Ryan Garbutt skated in behind Mitchell and cross-checked him into the boards near the bench, resulting in a penalty. Jhonas Enroth proved to be the only reason the Sabres were in it after one, stopping all 15 shots he faced. Shots were 15-8 Stars through the first period.
The second period began in mutiny and ended with the smallest sliver of hope. Within the first minute of the middle frame, the Buffalo Sabres used that leftover power play and capitalized with a Tyler Ennis snap shot, making it 2-0 Sabres. Chris Stewart and Matt Moulson tallied the assists. With 14:01 left in the second, the Buffalo Sabres again caught the Stars sloppy defense sleeping, and played tic-tac-toe in front of Lindback, who was eventually scored on by Zemgus Girgensons. Assists were granted to Chris Stewart and Nikita Zadorov. With 12:12 left, Drew Stafford went to the penalty box and the Stars got a chance at their first power play of the night, but were unsuccessful. Later on with 5:50 remaining, Josh Gorges was called for closing his hand over the puck, and the Stars did not disappoint on the man advantage. Tyler Seguin snagged the puck in front at the 15:23 mark and stalled for a second, finding the right time to ram it home past Enroth for his 29th of the season. With 1:25, Tyler Myers pummeled Jamie Benn behind the net and sandwiched him against fellow Sabre Josh Gorges. The Dallas Stars captain obviously did not approve of this, and proceeded to go and attack Myers after the puck was frozen. Benn was called for roughing and sent to the box with 1:16 left in the second. The power play bled through into the third, but nothing came out of it in the second. At the end of the middle frame, the shot total was 31-21 in favor of the Stars.
The Dallas Stars had nothing big to look forward to in the third period, though. After clearing up the Benn minor, the Buffalo Sabres pulled a move commonly made by the Stars when they are leading late in a game and went into a “don’t lose” state of mind. As a result, the Sabres were reduced to only clearing the puck down the ice to stall the Stars frantic attack. The Sabres did not take their first shot of the third period until 13:54 had passed. With 10:13 left in the third, John Klingberg set up Cody Eakin to score on a beautiful wrist shot in tight. The Stars then pulled Lindback from the net with about two minutes to go. But it was to no avail, as the Dallas Stars were finished off by the worst team in the NHL, the Buffalo Sabres, by a final score of 3-2.
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Thoughts and Observations
The Stars lost to the worst team in the NHL after outshooting them by 16. Just let that sink in.
The Dallas Stars may want to take a note out of Buffalo’s playbook. The Stars, who consistently try to hold a lead by clearing and playing back in the third period, can never get the job done and always end up giving away their lead. The Sabres succeeded in that tonight.
The defense cannot get much worse, can it? Anders Lindback did all he could, but when a goaltender is facing a 3-on-0, there is not much more that you can ask for him to do.
Jhonas Enroth stopped 38 of 40 shots. It seems very odd how often the Dallas Stars run into a “hot goalie.” Coincidence???
The Sabres blocked 28 shots in the game compared to the Dallas Stars’ 8.
The Stars lose another opportunity at two points, this time being a prime chance against a disgruntled team. The wild card spots are slowly slipping further and further away with each game wasted.
The Stars will now travel to New York for a date with the Rangers tomorrow afternoon. We’ll see if that one is as bad as tonight’s was.