Stars-Lightning thoughts

That was a strange game.

I thought the Stars power play was great, scoring three times to continue it’s nice recent run and then it fizzles on a 3:49 chance to put the game away, letting Tampa Bay hang around the game.

I thought Alex Auld was outstanding until he lets in two in 47 seconds, letting Tampa tie the game. The Stamkos power play shot was a beauty but the Halpern goal to tie it was just a bad goal.

I thought the Stars’ discipline and ability to stay out the box was impressive and there they are killing a power play in the final two minutes with the game tied. They dodged that bullet.

In the end they won the game thanks to Steven Stamkos throwing a pass to no one in the Dallas end and Tom Wandell finishing off a pass from Loui Eriksson on the rush.

They all can’t be pretty - and this one wasn’t - but it was two points and points are important. Overall, I thought they were pretty good. It got a little sloppy at the end, but they overcame it and found a way to win the game.

They bounced back after falling behind, kept pushing, drew some penalties and made the most of those second period power play chances. Mike Smith’s puckhandling was an accident waiting to happen and his delay of game penalty for throwing the puck over the glass and giving the Stars a 1:04 five-on-three was a big moment in the game. The Andrej Meszaros cross check that led to another five-on-three was another big moment. That whole sequence turned the game around.

The Steve Ott hit on David Hale on the third was close to being a penalty, wasn’t and Hale got a penalty for retaliation and the Stars score on that power play and it looks like they are in good shape, especially when Alex Tanguay takes the double minor for high sticking Mark Fistric. But the Stars can’t cash in and the Lightning take advantage by scoring two quick goals later in the period to tie. From Tampa’s perspective it was a good point. They gave up two five-on-three goals, trailed 3-1 in the third period and still got it to OT.

Marc Crawford juggled things on the forward lines. He put Steve Ott and Jere Lehtinen on a line with Tom Wandell and that trio went head-to-head with Stamkos’ line a lot of the time and did a nice job. Fabian Brunnstrom was recalled from the AHL Saturday and played right wing with Mike Modano and Toby Petersen. The top two lines stayed the same as they were the last game. Krys Barch, Brian Sutherby (activated from IR) and Jeff Woywtika were the scratches.

The Stars are taking tomorrow off and will fly to Detroit, where they’ll play the Red Wings on Monday. 

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