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SCF: Stars Have No Time to Lament What Could Have Been |
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There is no doubt that the Dallas Stars find themselves in a desperate situation, trailing the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final, three games to one, after losing Game 4 in overtime on Friday night, 5-4. There's no time to lament being unable to protect leads of 2-0 and 3-2 in Game 4. There's no use in dwelling on a controversial overtime tripping penalty on Jamie Benn that opened the door to a game-winning power play goal by Tampa's Kevin Shattenkirk.
All the Stars can do now is dig deep, get right back to work in Game 5 on Saturday night and find a way to avoid a handshake line and Stanley Cup presentation ceremony for Tampa Bay. The truth of the matter is that the Stars had ample opportunity to win Game 4 and knot the series at two games apiece, and they were unable to do so.
Dallas hardly dominated the first period on Thursday, being held to a mere three shots on goal, but they were plenty opportunistic. A blocked shot attempt by John Klingberg went right back to the Dallas defenseman and he snapped his second-chance opportunity past Andrei Vasilevskiy (26 saves on 30 shots). A gorgeous setup from Benn to Joe Pavelski and a perfect finish by Pavelski made it 2-0. Dallas coughed up a goal just 59 seconds later, as Brayden Point scored a picturesque goal off the rush where he simply outmaneuvered everyone including Anton Khudobin (30 saves on 35 shots).
It's never a good feeling to give up a goal right after your team scores but the Stars nonetheless took a 2-1 lead to the first intermission despite being outshot, 8-3, in a tight-checking and physical period. That should have been a jump off point for the final 40 minutes for the Stars. Instead, they immediately got hemmed in to start the second period. The often penalty-prone Jamie Oleksiak took his second minor of the game, and Point turned it into his second goal of the game to tie the game at 2-2 just 2:08 into the second period.
The second period in general was a lot more wide open than the first. At 8:26, Dallas retook the lead as Tyler Seguin was unable to beat Vasilevskiy on a transition rush, but steered shot/pass off the goalie's skate as Seguin fell to the ice near the goal line to the right of the post and Corey Perry got just enough of the puck for it to dribble over the goal line.
Dallas was up, 3-2, but the lead never felt safe. When you are the underdog in a series, the No. 1 cardinal rule is "don't beat yourself; make 'em earn it." The Stars' left the door open to Tampa too many times. Dallas got back in penalty trouble, and Tampa got two players inside the PK box: one at the net and Yanni Gourde in the center slot. Gourde was untouched as he collected a loose puck and fired it home to tie the game at 3-3 late in the second period (18:54).
In the third period, Dallas trailed for the first time. Khudobin, who was not particularly sharp in Game 4, yielded a soft goal to Alex Killorn at 6:41. The goal wasn't entirely on Khudobin. It started with a defensive zone faceoff loss and then Esa Lindell being easily beaten in a puck battle behind the net by Killorn. The Tampa forward went around the net into the right circle and fired off a shot that beat Khudobin upstairs. Although the puck was partially deflected by Lindell's attempted stick block, the shot came from outside the dot. It was a save that needed to be made in the third period of a tied game.
The Stars are nothing if not resilient -- it's how they've gotten this far in the postseason -- and they brought the needed level of urgency to push back on Tampa. At 11:35, Dallas retook the lead as they got self-made puck luck. Tyler Seguin fired a shot attempt that was claimed by Pavelski. Seguin went to the net. Palevski shot from a side angle on the right and the puck pinballed off Vasilevskiy, then off Shattenkirk and then into the net.
The Stars caught a bit of a break in the final 29 seconds of regulation when the referees made offsetting tripping/embellishment penalties on Perry and Point to make it 4-on-4 manpower rather than a Tampa power play. Dallas then had an early overtime 4-on-3 power play when Seguin drew a hooking call on Mikhail Sergachev at the 37-second mark.
The Stars were unable to score. At 5:10, Benn was called for tripping the smaller Tyler Johnson on what seemed to be just a routine battle for the puck between two players. The call was made by trailing referee Francis Charron. On the ensuing power play, Gourde won a draw and Shattenkirk moved into the right circle. Using Oleksiak as a screen, he scored the game-winner.
After the game, much of the focus was on the Benn penalty. It was a bad call. Ultimately, though, the Stars have to look in the mirror first. They went 1-for-4 on the penalty kill, and 0-for-3 on the power play including an overtime opportunity. Two faceoffs in the defensive zone loomed large in goal sequences. Dallas gave up a goal less than a minute after scoring one. Khudobin let it one he needed to stop.
Add it all up and it's a recipe for losing to a team that's as good as Tampa. The Stars will need to be a little better in Game 5 on Saturday to extend the series to a Game 6 on Monday. (Side note: Playing a b2b/ 3-in-4 in a Stanley Cup Final series is ridiculous.)
Dallas Stars Blogger • 
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