Stars’ dwindling playoff hopes take another hit in loss to Colorado
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
The thought was the Stars might have to win five of six games on their current homestand to stand a chance of making the playoffs. Well, they are 0-1-1 so far after a 5-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche Sunday afternoon.
"You have to keep persevering and I know it's hard," said Stars coach Marc Crawford. "It's hard for our players to hear that, it's hard for the coaching staff and the organization to keep saying it. But it is the answer and it is the right answer. We did many good things tonight and we have to keep building on that."
The regulation loss left them seven points out of a playoff spot with 14 games remaining. It could be eight by the end of the night depending on the rest of the action Sunday's games.
"Every night that you don't pick up points, it gets tougher and tougher. But I think in the end, you can't give up," said Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas. "We've just got to keep plugging away and find a way to win games. That's the bottom line."
The 0-1-1 start on the homestand gives the Stars a dismal 1-5-1 mark since the Olympic break.
"We may take a second to think about it, but we've got another game in two nights," said Stars captain Brenden Morrow. "Nobody's coming in feeling sorry for us, and if we have that attitude, we're good as dead in those games. It's frustrating, disappointing. The bit of a roll we had on that last road trip leading up to the break was a bright spot for us, and then to come out and be 1-5-1 - it's not good enough.
"We're watching those teams that are on that playoff bubble all collecting points, and we're not getting them. It's going to be an early summer for us if we don't start two days from now. It's frighteningly close to our playoff picture evaporating."
The Stars outshot the Avalanche 51-22 in Sunday's game, but the goaltending and special teams advantage belonged to Colorado. Avalanche goalie Craig Anderson was superb, stopping 48 shots and shutting the door on the Stars after his team fell behind 3-2.
"We just came up against a very, very hot goaltender on the other side tonight and he was the difference maker," said Crawford. "I thought our guys did everything they needed to do against that kind of performer; you need to keep getting traffic in front of the net, you need to be hard in those hard areas and we were. But he was equal to the task."
Stars goalie Marty Turco was pulled in the second period after giving up four goals on 18 shots. Kari Lehtonen faced only four shots, giving up one goal.
"It wasn't for a change of pace," Crawford said of the decision to pull Turco. "Oftentimes when you do it, it provides that. They had I think only five or six shots from that point on. I think our guys need to know that we going to persevere and keep moving forward. I thought that that was the call that needed to be made.''
Colorado cashed in on two of its three power play chances in the game, while the Stars were 0-5 with the man-advantage.
"It's details," said Robidas. "We gave them a few chances, and they scored two power-play goals. We didn't score one on our power play, and if you look at the score - they won 5-3. If we score two and they don't score [on the power play], it's a different game."
After Colorado's Milan Hejduk and Dallas' Jamie Benn scored first period goals, Colorado took a 2-1 lead with a Darcy Tucker power play goal in the second period. The Stars took a 3-2 lead when Brandon Segal scored two goals 1:22 apart, but Colorado would answer would three unanswered goals. With Segal in the penalty box for roughing, Paul Stastny scored to tie the game at 11:05 of the second. Just 2:41 later Chris Stewart scored on a wrap-around to make it 4-3 Colorado, ending Turco's night. Stastny scored an insurance goal in the third.
"We didn't play our best game of the season, and our goaltender was outstanding this afternoon just like he's been all season," said Sacco. "He's a big reason why we came away with two points tonight."
The Stars continue their homestand when they host San Jose on Tuesday.
| Game Recap |
|
Colorado opened the score
midway through the first period when Milan Hejduk scored from
the right circle off the rush at the 10:19 mark.
But the Stars answered a little more than four minutes later when James Neal won a puck battle on his stomach and slid the puck across the crease to Jamie Benn, who put it into the side of the net to tie the game at 14:31 of the first. Both teams got power play chances early in the second. The Stars missed on their chance and Colorado cashed in on theirs when Hejduk sent a cross-ice pass to Darcy Tucker, who scored off a one-timer from the right circle at the 4:28 mark to make it 2-1 Colorado. But the Stars answered 1:31 later when Brandon Segal scored off the rebound of a Brad Richards wrap-around shot at 5:59 of the second. The Stars took the lead 1:22 later when Mike Ribeiro dropped the puck to Segal off the rush and the Stars right wing scored off blast from the right circle to make it 3-2 Dallas at 7:21 of the second. Segal took a roughing minor after Matt Hendricks hit Stars defenseman Karlis Skrastins hard along the boards and the Avalanche cashed in on the power play. Paul Stastny tipped a Peter Mueller blast from the point to tie the game 3-3 at 11:05. Colorado took the lead when Chris Stewart scored on a wrap-around at 13:46 of the second. That ended the day for Turco, who was pulled after allowing four goals on 18 shots. Kari Lehtonen came in net for the Stars. The Stars had two power play chances in the third, but couldn't cash in and the get the equalizer. Colorado was able to extend the lead when Stastny beat Lehtonen with a wrist shot from the slot off the rush at 12:23 of the third. The Stars pulled Lehtonen late in the game for the extra attacker and got a fifth power play for a six-on-four advantage, but Colorado goalie Craig Anderson made a series of great stops to keep the Stars from cutting into the lead. |
| Quotable |
|
"Any criticism that is thrown
our way, we have to be man enough to take it. It's not good
enough when you're 1-5-1. It's not good enough when you're
getting scored on as many times as we're getting scored on. So
what are the solutions? The solutions are to tighten up, and
we're going to continue to keep checking and we're going to
continue to make it difficult for people to get scoring chances,
and tonight I thought we did a very good job. We'll take the
criticism, it's justified. On the other side, we have to stick
together as a group and keep persevering and keep believing.'' -
Stars coach Marc Crawford "This is a do or die situation right now for us. We would have liked a better result tonight but we played well and we've just got to take what we learned out of this game and move forward." - Stars forward Brandon Segal "It's just a matter of giving the team a chance to win. There are times when the team is playing really well and I've just got to make the easy save and there are times when we have some breakdowns and I have to make a couple of extra big saves. My just is to just make sure I keep the team in the game and give ourselves a chance to win." - Colorado goalie Craig Anderson |
| Game Links |
| Game Summary | Event Summary |
