| On a night when the Dallas Stars could have really
used a power play goal, they couldn't get one. For all
that is going right for the Stars, the power play
remains a sore spot.
It was 0-7 Monday night. It is 1-23 over the past
four games. It is now 13-92 on the season for a 14.1
success rate. It was ranked 20th into the game and will
probably drop a little bit lower.
Of course those seven power plays weren't all full
power plays. They had a total of 9:35 of power play
time. That's closer to five power plays than seven.
The Stars did gain a little momentum from a power
play early in the second period and they did score on a
delayed penalty, but there were still all those other
squandered opportunities.
The penalty kill was strong again, killing seven of
eight chances. The one it have up on this night just
happened to come with 45 seconds left in a tie game.
Mike Smith had a strong game overall. The first goal
he let up was a bad one.
"Obviously, it doesn't leave the mind too quickly
when you let a goal in like that, but I had to fight
through it," said Smith. "Everyone in the building knows
it's a bad goal, but you just want to bounce back and
try to give the team a chance."
He did bounce back from it and did give the Stars a
chance to win.
"He settled down and made some good saves for us,"
said Stars coach Dave Tippett.
Kevin Bieksa, who scored that first one on a shot
from the red line, said the Canucks knew Smith
liked to come out to handle the puck, so he acted as if
he was going to just dump the puck in the zone and then
put it on net to try to catch Smith off guard.
"The scouting report was that
(Smith) handles the puck well so I just tried to put one
on net," said Bieksa.
The Stars got another strong game from Eric Lindros,
who scored Dallas' only goal and may have been the
Stars' best player. Lindros extended his points streak
to three games.
The elbowing call on Brenden Morrow that led to the
power play goal that won the game was a tough call.
Sometimes the calls go your way and sometimes they
don't. Ask the Edmonton Oilers.
The Canucks got a superb game from Roberto Luongo,
who was under some criticism for his recent play. His
stops on Mike Modano and Jussi Jokinen with about four
minutes left in the game were huge.
Vancouver was a desperate team and it showed at times
Monday. The Stars will face another desperate team
Tuesday in Calgary. |
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