The Stars had a strong first period, holding the Ducks to just three shots, and taking a 1-0 lead into the intermission. The played well for parts of the second, although they gave up a power play goal early in the period. But some missed power play chances and a bad goal late in the game did them in during a key game against a division rival.

"We're finding ways to lose right now rather than finding ways to win," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "There were some real strong points of that game for us. We were playing a hard, solid game. It's a break here or there that you are going to get, but some of those breaks you've got to make. It's taking a penalty late, it's not capitalizing on our power play, it's giving up a bad goal late. When you have as many of those in check as possible, it gives you a better chance to win. When they are not in check, you saw the result."

The result was a 2-1 loss to the Ducks that pushed the Stars' losing streak to three games and their record in March to 1-6-0. They are now three points behind the Ducks and eight points behind San Jose, which beat Minnesota in a shootout Wednesday night to push its points streak to 14 games (13-0-1).

But the Stars can't worry to much about the Sharks right now. They have their own issues to worry about. Most of all, they are struggling to win.

"It's been a tough stretch, not playing the way we can, and it comes down to all of us doing all we can to help this team win," Stars goalie Marty Turco said. "We have to keep battling and we need to keep faith in each other."

It was a tough night for Turco, who played well all night but then let one in with 27.2 seconds to go in the game that he would definitely like to have back. Todd Bertuzzi's backhand shot from the bottom of the right circle beat Turco while the Ducks were on a power play.

Ducks coach Randy Carlyle was quick to praise Bertuzzi's goal scoring touch.

"That was a goal scorer's goal,'' Carlyle said. "I think it surprised Turco that he shot it from that position. That's what goal scorers do.''

Turco saw it differently.

"It was a shot at the net from a bad angle. I got a piece of it, lost it and it went in," said Turco. "You'd like to have one like that back, but you can't. I always try to give my teammates to win and I thought I was doing that, but that's a save that needs to be made."'

The call that led up to that Bertuzzi's power play goal was a questionable interference minor on Brenden Morrow.

"I'm in a bad mood right now, very frustrated," Morrow said. "I don't like to see a game decided by something that light, we were in our lanes and ran into each other. We made it close, but close isn't going to get you very far. Right now, I don't take any positives out of this."

The Stars power play was a big negative in this one. Special teams play had been key in the season series, which Dallas led 5-1 heading into the Wednesday's game.  The Stars were 9-26 on the power play in the first six games of the series, while the Ducks were 5-33.

The tables were turned on this night. Anaheim struck on two of their five chances and held the Stars scoreless on their seven chances.

"You could tell they had a real focus on their power plays, that's been a factor in the series. They had a real factor in the series. They had a real focus. We couldn't find a way to execute the plays we needed to," said Stars coach Dave Tippett.

It was a dismal night for the Stars' power play, which was able to generate just two shots on its seven failed bids with the man-advantage. It missed on a 4:00 minute chance midway through the third period with the game tied 1-1.

"That's a slap in the face for our power play," said Tippett. "We've got to get back to work."

And the Stars will do that Thursday in Frisco. They've got a game against the Kings on Saturday afternoon and then don't play again until next Thursday when they open a West Coast road trip in an Jose.

"The time for encouragement and talk is gone," said Morrow. "We haven't done the job. We haven't worked hard enough. The time is now to put the work boots back on and realize we are in a dogfight and we've got to work ourselves out of this hole."

"He'll skate tomorrow, a light skate tomorrow," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "First time."

Zubov had surgery to place a screw in his fractured foot on February 24.