| After dropping consecutive road games to teams
playing with some desperation, it appears the Dallas
Stars may need some desperation when they take on the
Phoenix Coyotes Thursday night in the desert.
Another loss and it will be their third straight and
they'll have to sit on that and a disappointing road
trip for almost a week before their next game, which
doesn't come until November 15 when they host the
Islanders.
The Stars have scored just two goals in the past two
games.
"It's a
concern because we lost both of the games," said Stars
captain Brendan Morrow. "In the past, it wasn't a
concern because we were finding ways to win when we
weren't scoring goals."
Once again it was a disappointing night for the
Stars' power play, which did score but failed on a
couple of chances to get the equalizer when the Stars
were down 2-1. It was 1-7 Tuesday after going 0-7 in
Monday's 2-1 loss in Vancouver.
"Our power play has been the difference in those two
games," said Stars forward Eric Lindros. "Nothing
against the goaltending on the other side, but we have
got to bury our chances."
The Stars' power play is 2-30 over the last five
games. That's 6.7 percent.
"That's been one thing in our game lately, our power
play hasn't been good at all," said Stars forward Antti
Miettinen, who scored the Dallas power play goal
Tuesday. "In tight games like this those are moments
that really matter."
Tippett juggled personnel on the power play during
game, using Jussi Jokinen at center with Miettinen and
Jere Lehtinen at times.
Faceoffs have been another problem. They've won just
42 percent in each of the last two games. A defensive
zone faceoff loss ended up leading to what turned out to
be the game-winning goal on Tuesday night.
One solid aspect of their game has been the penalty
killing, which was a perfect 7-7 Tuesday night.
Give Calgary credit. The Flames played a solid game.
They had a more physical edge to their game than the
Stars and had more desperation in their game.
Tony Amonte was superb, scoring two goals and just
missing on two other chances. Miikka Kiprusoff came up
with some sparkling saves. Dion Phaneuf, Robyn Regehr
and Roman Hamrlik had solid games on the blue line. It
was a big win for Calgary, which won consecutive games
for the first time this season. The only drawback is the
Flames lost forward Alex Tanguay to a shoulder injury
midway through the third period to a shoulder injury. |
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