Penguins rally, blow by Stars 6-3
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
For a short time Saturday afternoon the Dallas Stars looked like they were getting things together. They held a 3-1 lead early in the second period, but then the bottom fell out as the Pittsburgh Penguins rattled off five unanswered goals for a 6-3 win at Mellon Arena.
The loss was the third straight since the Olympic break for the Stars, who have been outscored 17-5 in the three defeats.
"It's no secret that you're not going to win much giving up 5 or 6 goals a game," said Stars captain Brenden Morrow. "You look at some of these teams right now, we might be outmatched on paper and we've got to want it more. It looked like we did at the start of the game. A couple of undisciplined type plays and they get back in the game."
The road doesn't get any easier for the Stars, who next play at Washington, which leads the league in points, home points percentage and scoring.
"We're not going to win many hockey games if we aren't willing to pay the price to do what ever it takes to win," said Morrow. "If you look at our schedule, we've got some real tough opponents and we've got to be focused."
Kari Lehtonen made his first start for the Stars and his first NHL start since last April. He gave up six goals on 34 shots.
"I can say the goalie looked fatigued tonight and we're confident he's going to get better,'' Stars coach Marc Crawford said.
After Jordan Staal scored on a breakaway for Pittsburgh and Mike Ribeiro answered for the Stars, the two teams were tied 1-1 after the first period.
The Stars took a 3-1 lead with goals by Loui Eriksson and Brandon Segal 59 seconds apart early in the second period. But the Penguins answered with Kunitz, Pascal Dupuis and Sidney Crosby to take a 4-3 lead into the third.
The Stars had a great chance to tie the game when they opened the third period with a five-on-three power play, but they couldn't score and Crosby scored shorthanded on the remaining 5-on-4 at the 1:35 mark to make it 5-3.
“That power play didn’t generate much, and they came back and scored at the end of it,” Ribeiro said. “That was the game.”
The Stars had a couple more power play chances in the third to cut into the lead, but couldn't take advantage. The Stars ended the game 0-6 on the power play and gave up the shorthanded goal.
Alexei Ponikarovsky scored on the power play for Pittsburgh later in the third period to round out the scoring.
Crosby had two goals and an assist for the Penguins, who have now won three straight since the break including back-to-back wins where they've overcome two-goal deficits.
:The last game it was a matter of us playing really well and wearing the other team down,” Crosby said. “Today was just a matter of trying to regroup and respond after a not-so-good first half (of the game). They were kind different scenarios, but we came out in the second half, especially today, and tried to be a lot better. We got rewarded with some goals for it."
The Stars continue their road trip Monday in Washington.
| Game Recap |
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The Penguins took the lead
2:11 into the game when Jordan Staal took a pass from Matt
Cooke, split the Stars defense and beat Stars goalie Kari
Lehtonen five-hole on a breakaway.
The Stars tied it at the 12:05 mark when the Penguins turned the puck over in the neutral zone, Mike Ribeiro skated in on net, had his initial shot stopped by Marc-Andre Fleury and then scored on the rebound. The Stars took a 3-1 lead early in the second with a pair of goals 59 seconds apart. The Stars scored on a two-on-one at the 1:29 mark when Ribeiro set up Brandon Segal, who finished off the chance for his second goal as a Star. At the 2:38 mark Brad Richards set up Loui Eriksson, who scored his team leading 25th of the season from close range. But the Penguins answered with three straight goals to take the lead. Chris Kunitz took a cross-ice pass from Sidney Crosby and picked the corner with a shot from the left circle at the 4:01 mark to make it 3-2. Pittsburgh tied it at the 9:10 mark when Kris Letang knocked Richards off the puck in the neutral zone, skated along the right boards and centered the puck to Pascal Dupuis, who knocked it past Lehtonen. The Penguins took the lead with 3:13 left in the second when the Stars got scrambling in their own zone, and Crosby banked a wrap-around attempt off Stars defenseman Trevor Daley and into the net. The Stars went on a 1:03 five-on-three power play with six seconds left in the period and it carried over into the third period. The Stars couldn't cash in on the chance. Fleury made a big save on a point blank chance by Morrow and after the five-on-three turned into a five-on-four, the Penguins scored shorthanded when Crosby tallied on a two-on-one rush. Alexei Ponikarovsky, acquired at the trade deadline, scored off a rebound on the power play to make it a 6-3 game later in the period. |
| Quotable |
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“Having a 3-1 lead, that
looked like a big turnaround. We had a good start to the second,
and then all of a sudden the bottom fell out. Every mistake we
seem to make now just ends up in our net, so it’s magnified
1,000 times.” - Stars center Mike Modano "It's prime scoring chances for the other team. Whether it's Kari or Marty [Turco] back there, they are battling as hard as they can. We've got to defend as six guys. We can't leave on or two guys out there to defend for us." - Stars captain Brenden Morrow “I never doubted our guys. That is the thing about our guys - no mater what the score is everybody still believes we can come back. We showed that." Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury "We always know that he'll bounce back." Penguins captain on Fleury, who gave up three goals in the first 22:28 of the game and shut the door after that. "People like to talk about the dangerous weapons we have, but when we're playing well and playing our game, we are a good team. That's the first guy through the 23rd guy." Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma |
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