Dallas Stars 5, St. Louis Blues 4 (OT)

by Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

DALLAS — The Dallas Stars won their final regular season home game Saturday night in dramatic fashion, but it wasn't enough to keep their playoff hopes alive. Trevor Daley's goal 16 seconds into overtime gave them a 5-4 win over St. Louis, but with the Blues picking up one point in the game it mathematically eliminated the Stars from playoff race.

"It's been bittersweet for a while now. You focus on the last few weeks and you make the playoffs by playing well all year," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "We were too inconsistent over the course of the year to give ourselves a chance. We had too many struggles over the season, that didn't allow us to push through."

It's the first time the Stars have missed the playoffs since 2001-02 and the first time since Tippett has been head coach.

"Obviously, we play all these games to get in the postseason and not getting in, that is disappointing," said Daley, who was was back in the lineup after missing four games with a knee injury.

The Stars did put on a good show for the fans at the American Airlines Center, knocking off the Blues in a see-saw affair that saw the Stars rally twice in the third period to tie and then it win it overtime.

"It's the double-edged sword. We knew we had a tough hill to climb, but we also wanted to go out extremely well and give the fans a good show," said forward Steve Ott, whose goal with 6:13 remaining tied the game at 4-4. "Next year look out because we're coming back bigger stronger and healthier. Tonight was for the fans, it was fan appreciation night. We appreciate the Dallas fans no matter where we are in the standings, whether we're on top or playing in the bottom. We just wanted to go out there and give them a good show."

The game also marked the NHL debut of Matt Climie, who was called up from Idaho of the ECHL and got the start due to an injury to Marty Turco.

"It was quite the experience. It just worked out great," said the 26-year-old, who was signed as a free agent out of Bemidji State last spring. "The guys battled back to tie it up late and then in overtime, we got that quick one and the guys did a great job and the end result is we got ourselves a win."

Climie made two sharp saves on Blues forward Brad Boyes early in the game and ended up stopping 22 of 26 shots on the night.

"Climie had some nervousness, but he made some saves and some pucks found him," said Tippett. "He got the win and that's what he wanted."

"He played great tonight," said Daley. "I wish we could've done better in front of him defensively, but he made the big saves and got his first win."

The Stars got the first goal of the game when Blues goalie Chris Mason turned the puck over behind the net to Tom Wandell, who centered the puck and Loui Eriksson banged the puck into an open net 10:57 into the game.

Boyes tied the game 2:15 into the second when he deflected a Mike Weaver point shot. Matt Niskanen set up the Stars' second goal at 4:54 of the second, weaving his way through the Blues defense and send a cross-ice pass to Mike Ribeiro, who scored from the left circle. Boyes tied it again at 6:39 of the second when he banged home a shot from the slot after taking a pretty spinning backhand pass from Barret Jackman. David Backes put the Blues ahead late in the second when he scored into the top right corner of the net from the left circle.

The Stars tied the game 35 seconds into third when Wandell skated into the Blues zone and dropped the puck to James Neal, who put a shot on net and Eriksson swept in to score on the rebound.

St. Louis took the lead with a power play goal at 6:44 of the third. Boyes put a shot on net and T.J. Oshie redirected it past Climie to make it at 4-3 game.

But the Stars tied it when Ott tracked down a puck down the left wing, beat Blues defender Roman Polak one-on-one and slipped a backhand shot past St. Louis goalie Chris Mason with 6:13 to go.

In overtime the Stars struck quickly as Mike Modano sent a cross-ice pass to a pinching Daley, who knocked it past Mason.

"I found a hole and Mike, being the player he is, I think it just bounced off my stick and went in," said Daley.

The overtime loss dropped the Blues down to ninth place in the Western Conference standings. They are tied with Nashville at 86 points, but they have one fewer win.

"When you score four goals on the road you should come away with two points," Blues coach Andy Murray said. "Overall our attention to defensive detail wasn't what we needed it to be."

The Stars now hit the road for their final three games of the season. They'll play at Minnesota, Colorado and Anaheim to close out the season.

"You owe it to your team, teammates and ownership to play hard till the end and that's what this team will do," said Tippett.

Notes: Defenseman Trevor Daley and Mark Fistric both returned to the lineup for the Stars after missing time with injuries. ... The Stars recalled defenseman Ivan Vishnevskiy from Peoria of the AHL on Saturday and assigned defenseman Garrett Stafford to Grand Rapids of the AHL. Vishnevskiy did not play Saturday.