Stars fall in shootout to Coyotes

Sunday, January 11, 2009-1:29:am
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page                            

Marty Turco got his first shutout of the season, but it wasn't enough to get the Dallas Stars two points in Glendale, Arizona Saturday night.  Phoenix goalie Ilya Bryzgalov pitched a shutout as well, which led to a shootout that the Coyotes won to give them a 1-0 victory over the Stars.

"When you get a shutout, you think that you should get the win," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "We didn't. We're in the winning business. We're not in the just-about business."

Turco, whose last shutout came last season against Colorado (March 9, 2008), stopped 28 shots in the game including some big ones in the second and third periods.

"We deserved better, it's unfortunate," Turco said.

The Stars, trying to bounce back after a dismal 6-1 loss in Detroit on Thursday, outshot the Coyotes 38-28 but couldn't get any pucks by Bryzgalov, who made several excellent saves in the game including nice saves on James Neal, Jere Lehtinen and Loui Eriksson in the first period.

We played better as a team," Stars center Brad Richards said. "Early in the game, we had chances. We'd like to have a few opportunities back, but I'm sure they would, too. We just didn't find the play to put the puck in the net."

The shutout was the second of the season for Bryzgalov.

"I thought that Bryzgalov was no question our best player tonight," Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky said. "When your goaltender is the best player, it makes life a lot easier for everything."

Turco came up with big stops on Peter Muller and Kyle Turris in the third period to keep it a scoreless game.

But Mueller, Turris and Steven Reinprecht scored on Turco in the shootout and only Mike Ribeiro and James Neal could beat Bryzgalov, giving Phoenix the extra point and their first win a game that has gone beyond regulation this season.

"From a pure hockey point of view, it's just a hard pill to swallow to lose a game on contests, so to speak," Gretzky said. "It is what it is. Everybody has to deal with it. Probably the people who don't enjoy it the most are the coaches."

Turris provided the game-deciding goal in the shootout, beating Turco with a backhand shot after faking a forehand shot.

"I've practiced it," Turris said. "I just kind of thought about it when the other guys were shooting and thought I'd try it out."

The Stars, who had won their last three shootouts, remained at .500 on the season at 17-17-6.

"It sucks to get to overtime with these guys when you had a chance to win in regulation," said Turco.

Notes: Stars forward Joel Lundqvist, who had missed the last eight games with a shoulder injury, returned to the lineup Saturday. "It was fun to be back," Lundqvist said. "It's been a while, so it's nice to be playing." Lundqvist played on a line with Brad Richards and Loui Eriksson. Chris Conner came out of the lineup to make room for Lundqvist.