Sunday, November 23, 2008

Anaheim Ducks 2, Dallas Stars 1 (SO)

By Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

DALLAS — In their first game without captain Brenden Morrow there was no win for the Dallas Stars Saturday night. But they did earn a point and they believed there were some positives in a hard-fought 2-1 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks at the American Airlines Center.

"I think in this situation, we had a lot of compete to our game and its going to have to stay that way," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "We would've liked the extra point obviously, but there were some positives."

The Stars, already mired in a slow start to the season, learned Friday that Morrow would be out for the season with a torn ACL.

But Saturday night they went toe-to-toe with the Ducks in a tight checking game that was physical at times and one where the Stars allowed just one goal and not a lot of quality chances.

"I think we responded really well, we're not quite there yet but it's a step in the right direction. We played a good team and I think we responded well to the challenge," said defenseman Stephane Robidas. "We played tight and played a smart game. That's how we've got to play to be successful.

"I think we played tighter as a group, in a five man mentality. We kept it tight even though they scored first. There's a lot of game left. We're moving in the right direction. Tonight was much better defensively, we've just got to find a few goals."

But there were some shortcomings in the game. Special teams played a big role in this game and once again the Stars came up short in that battle. The Stars went 0-7 on the power play and had two five-on-three chances, including a 1:23 chance early in the third where they could have taken a 2-1 lead in the game.

Anaheim's only goal in regulation came on their first power play of the game. Corey Perry took a pass from Teemu Selanne and scored from the bottom of the left faceoff circle 5:37 into the game.

The Stars answered with Loui Eriksson's ninth goal of the season off a nice set up off the rush by Trevor Daley at 10:09 of the second period.

"I found a loose puck, got it to the net and Loui buried it," said Daley. "I wish it would've been enough though, but we had a much better game for the most part."

The Stars fell to 0-2 in shootouts this season and are a 0-4 in games that have gone beyond regulation.

Brad Richards, the first shooter, put the Stars up 1-0 in the shootout but Anaheim's Corey Perry answered on Anaheim's first chance. After Zubov and Ribeiro missed for Dallas and Teemu Selanne missed for Anaheim, Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf scored on Stars goalie Marty Turco to give the Ducks the win.

"I know Marty a little bit on the way he likes to come out [to challenge the shooter] and my mind set was to kind of slow it down a little bit and throw his timing off so he can't just back in the net," Getzlaf said. "It hit low off the post."

The win was just the second in the last seven games for the Ducks (2-3-2), who improved to 11-8-3 on the season and 6-2-1 on the road.

"We're not going to get too high with a shootout win," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. "You want to take that workmanlike attitude into the next game to try to establish our identity. We want to get back playing our grinding type of hockey."

For the Stars, who are 6-9-4 on the season and have just two wins in their last nine games, there is still a need to get more points as they try to climb out of last place in the Western Conference.

"The way things have been going, it goes without saying that there were some positives tonight. We are emphasizing the little things and it's nice to get the point, but we really wanted the win," said Turco.

That will start with a two-game road trip to Philadelphia and Minnesota this week.

"We are trying to make up ground and collect points, that's the bottom line. Points are at a premium and we know what we need to do," said Turco. "We have to continue working hard tightening things up and doing the little things on this road trip next week."

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