Blues blow away Stars 6-1
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
The Dallas Stars didn't bounce back from Tuesday's 5-1 loss to Los Angeles Kings. Instead, they got bounced around by the St. Louis Blues, falling 6-1 at American Airlines Center Thursday night.
"I'm concerned, for sure. Percentage-wise, it's as high as it's been with the group," said Stars coach Marc Crawford. "We've obviously gotten a long way away from our core. It stars with our play in our defensive zone. Our defensive play has usually been the hallmark of what we do. We're not playing great in that area right now. It's been exposed a little bit by some goals that have gone in that haven't been the greatest goals. We've been very lax in some areas of our coverage, and they exposed us tonight."
The Stars have been outscored 11-2 in their first two games out of the break and dropped to 11th place, one point behind the surging Blues. They didn't, however, lose any ground on eighth place.
"As bad as we've played we're only two points out (of eighth place)," said Crawford. "It's correctable. We know it's correctable. We're a lot better than we are showing and we have to correct it very quickly."
Quickly as in by Saturday, when they kick off a road trip that will see them play three of the top teams in the East - Pittsburgh, Washington and Buffalo.
"Whether it's on the road or anywhere, we're down under 20 games. These outings can't happen anymore," said Stars center Brad Richards.
Stars goalie Marty Turco got bounced from the game early in the second period after giving up four goals on 11 shots, giving way to Kari Lehtonen, who made his Dallas debut a little earlier than expected. Lehtonen played 38:10, stopping 14 of 16 shots on the night.
"It was exciting. It was not the way I'd like things to start, but it felt fine, and I kind of got into it," said Lehtonen. "Now I feel a lot more comfortable, but it wasn't too much fun there after 4-1."
By the time Lehtonen got into the game the Stars were down 4-1 early in the second period. After Paul Kariya scored for St. Louis and Loui Eriksson scored for the Stars in the first period, the Blues took command of the game with a pair of goals 17 seconds apart late in the first.
Brad Boyes scored from the bottom of the left circle off a nice feed from Alex Steen at the 17:28 mark and then Kariya blasted a shot off the glove of Turco and into the net at the 17:45 mark.
"Obviously, it's disappointing to give up two goals late in the first like that. We've got to be stronger mentally," said Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas. "We've got to play hard and we've got to be ready for a challenge. It doesn't matter what's going on in a game - if we're down by a goal, or two or three, we've got to keep playing, keep doing our job and keep doing the right things."
Steen ended Turco's night when he scored off a shot from the slot 1:50 into the second period. The Stars had three consecutive power plays later in the period and a chance to cut into the lead, but couldn't cash in. The Blues added goals by Patrik Berglund and T.J. Oshie in the third to round out the scoring.
St. Louis has now won five games in a row to pull to within one point of eighth place in the Western Conference.
"Unfortunately it's taken us this long to get it going," Oshie said. "Now everyone is getting used to each other on a consistent basis."
The Stars head off a three-game road trip that will take them to Pittsburgh, Washington and Buffalo.
| Game Recap |
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There were four goals and two
fights in the first period. The Blues scored three of the four
goals to hold the lead after the first 20 minutes.
The Blues took a 1-0 lead 9:28 into the game when Paul Kariya's shot beat Marty Turco, who was screened by Blues forward David Backes. The Stars drew even at the 15:16 mark when James Neal got to the rebound of a Brad Richards shot off the endboards, circled a around the net and sent the puck to Loui Eriksson, who scored from close range. But a little more than two minutes later the Blues scored two goals 17 seconds apart to take a 3-1 lead. Brad Boyes scored from the bottom of the left circle off a nice feed from Alex Steen at the 17:28 mark. Just 17 seconds later Kariya blasted a shot off Turco's glove and into the net from the left circle. There were two fights in the period. Stars forward Krys Barch and Blues forward D.J. King dropped the gloves as did Stars forward Jamie Benn and Blues defenseman Erik Johnson. The Blues extended the lead to 4-1 just 1:50 into the second period when Steen scored off a wrist shot from the slot. That ended Turco's night, who gave up four goals on 11 shots. In came Kari Lehtonen, who was making his first appearance as a Star, and he stopped all five shots he faced in the second period. Lehtonen gave up his first goal as a Star when he made a save on David Perron and then Perron got the rebound and sent it to a wide open Patrik Berglund, who put it in the open side of the net at 3:55 of the third period. T.J. Oshie scored later
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| Quotable |
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"We're definitely not in the
position we thought we'd be in going into the break. We were on
a high and playing well. But obviously, we've let that slip.
That's our job, no one else's, especially our leadership group
here to grab it now before it's too late. We got some help the
other night. We're not out of it, but it's going to be a tougher
road every day that goes by." - Stars center Brad Richards "There's not a lot of good things happening for us right now. We're beating ourselves. The work ethic is not there, and we're not sticking with the program, and once we get down, we get down on ourselves. When you get down by a goal, you can't let that affect the team, and we've just got to go back to basics, and keep it simple, and play hard and go from there." -Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas "We talk about responding with our game anytime a puck goes in the net, in either net, and I thought we did a really good job of that." Blues coach Davis Payne, on the Blues responding quickly to Dallas' goal that tied the game 1-1 |
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