Blackhawks complete season sweep of Stars with 3-1 win
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
Another game against the Chicago Blackhawks, another disappointing outcome for the Dallas Stars. The Blackhawks completed the season series sweep of the Stars, winning 3-1 at the American Airlines Saturday afternoon.
Chicago won all four games against the Stars this season, outscoring them 20-8 in the process. The last two wins came a week apart, including last Saturday's 6-2 win in Chicago.
"I don't know if it is a tough matchup for us," said Stars goalie Marty Turco, who made 30 saves in the game. "But losing four games decisively is disheartening. It's something we need to look at in all areas of the game."
The Blackhawks scored late in the first period and then added two more goals in the second period to build a 3-0 lead. They had some other great chances, but one wide open chance went off the post and Turco denied another with spectacular save on Chicago captain Jonathan Toews.
"[Chicago] played a good game, but in our situation we have very little room for error and if I feel we have five or six guys who aren't pulling their weight, we're way under," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "That's what you saw out there. We had some guys that didn't play very well. It's not that they're not trying. We had people trying, it's what you're doing. We got behind it and we just chased it. We looked like a tired and frustrated team chasing it."
Chicago scored on its second power play of the game when James Wisniewski scored on a blast from the slot with 3:56 left in the first period to take a 1-0 lead.
Chicago made it 2-0 at 7:43 of the second period during a delayed penalty call on the Stars. Patrick Kane scored from the side of the net on a broken play.
But the Stars had their chances in the second power play. They got two straight power plays, but couldn't take advantage.
Then Turco came up with the save of the game and one of the best of the year when while on his stomach he kicked up his leg and got a skate on the puck as Toews was looking at an open top half of the net and a sure goal.
"When you get into those types of situations it's all about reacting," Turco said of the save. "It usually stems from how you practice. Out of the corner of my eye I knew he hadn't shot it yet. You think he's going to go high and you stick a leg up and hope you get lucky."
A short time later the Stars went on a power play with a chance to cut the Chicago lead to 2-1 and possibly shift momentum their way. Again, they couldn't score with the man advantage.
"Our power play, our special teams never got it done tonight," said Stars defenseman Darryl Sydor. "If we would've gotten one on the power play in the second, it would've been a different game."
The Stars went 0-3 on the power play in the game.
"We're not getting enough second chances," said Tippett. "We're getting the first shot in there, but not generating enough second shots."
The Blackhawks extended the lead to 3-0 with 56 seconds left in the second period when Matt Walker scored from the right point.
The Stars did make it interesting at the
end when Steve Ott scored on a breakaway with 8:20 remaining in the
game, but that was as close as the Stars would get. Chicago Cristobal
Huet, who made 30 saves, made a nice stop
on Fabian Brunnstrom to help keep it a 3-1 game.
The Blackhawks won their fourth straight game and improved to 8-2-0 in their last ten games.
"I thought all facets of our game were in order," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said.
The Stars, who are on 1-1-0 in the first two games of their six-game homestand, host Western Conference leading San Jose on Monday.
"We've got to dig deep and its going to be like a playoff series for the next few months and we've got to have everyone," said Ott. "We start Monday night against San Jose. We've got to be ready to rock, they've got a great team and we've got to bring our A game and have all 20 guys contributing.
"We have to play better as a group and it just seems like we've had a lot of bad games against these guys. For us, we just need more, we have no choice we've got to have giving that little bit more or we're going to falter."
| First Period |
|
The Stars threw 21 hits in the first period, but they put the Blackhawks on two power plays and Chicago cashed in on the second one to score the only goal of the period. James Wisniewski scored off a blast from the slot with 3:56 left in the period to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead. There were a total of 36 penalty minutes in
the period, including ten-minute misconducts handed out to Stars
forward Steve Ott and Chicago's Dave Bolland. |
| Second Period |
|
Chicago extended its lead to 2-0 during a delayed penalty call on the Stars. With the extra attacker on the ice Patrick Kane scored from the side of the crease at the 7:23 mark. The Stars got three power play chances in about an eight-minute span of the period, but couldn't cut into the Blackhawks lead. Just before the third Chicago goal, Stars goalie Marty Turco made the save of the game and one of the best of the season. While on his stomach, Turco kicked his leg up and was able to get his skate on the puck as Jonathan Toews tried to put the puck over him and into an open top part of the net. But Chicago would get another late into the net with 56 seconds left in the period to make it a 3-0 game. After Cam Barker made a nice keep at the right point, he slid the puck to the left point, where Matt Walker put a shot on net that eluded Turco. Score after second period:Chicago 3, Dallas 0 |
| Third Period |
|
Steve Ott scored on a breakaway with 8:20 left in the game to make it a 3-1 game, and the Stars pushed hard after that but they couldn't get anything else past Chicago goalie Cristobal Huet. Final score: Chicago 3, Dallas 1 |
| Official Scoresheet | Official Super Stats |
