Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Vancouver Canucks 4, Dallas Stars 2

By Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

The Dallas Stars lost the special teams battle in Vancouver Tuesday night, and they lost their spot in the top eight in the Western Conference as well. The Stars' struggling power play missed on some key opportunities and their penalty kill unit surrendered two power play goals in a 4-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.

The Stars dropped to ninth place in the Western Conference, one point out of a playoff spot with 12 games remaining in their season.

"We've got to line it up tomorrow," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "This is a game we missed out on the points. We've got to go into Calgary and find a way to get points there."

The loss was the third in the last five games for the Stars, who are 4-9-1 over their last 14 games.

"It s tough," said Stars forward Steve Ott, who had a goal and an assist in the game. "We can't afford right now to come away empty-handed in the points department."

Special teams played a key role in this game. The Stars were 1-7 on the power play and missed on a 46 second five-on-three, while the Canucks scored on both their chances with the man advantage.

"Our execution isn't what it needs to be," Tippett said of the power play. "We generated some chances, but we can't seem to get it in the net. We've to got to stay with the simple. When we scored, we got the puck on net and had people going there. When we try to set up and do cute things, the execution isn't every good."

The Stars are 8-71 (11.3 percent) on the power play over their last 14 games.

"We've had some situations lately where we've gone on power plays and instead of using that to generate momentum for us, it's taken momentum away from us," said Tippett. "That was the case again tonight."

The Stars' penalty kill has surrendered ten goals over the last ten games. The Canucks moved to 23-25 on the penalty kill over their last four games.

"Our penalty killing was very good," said Canucks coach Alain Vigneault. " Our power play came up with two big goals. That was the difference in tonight's game. But I thought five-on-five, we were the better team tonight."

The teams traded power play goals in the first period. After the Stars had missed on their first chance, the Canucks cashed in on their first opportunity when Daniel Sedin's spinning, backhand centering pass went off Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas' skate and into the net 6:33 into the game.

The Stars drew even with 3:12 left in the period, taking advantage of their third power play chance of the period, when Robidas' shot from the point deflected off traffic and beat Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo.

The Canucks scored twice in less than four minutes in the second period to take control of the game. After Mats Sundin forced a neutral zone turnover, Canucks forward Pavol Demitra dropped the puck to Ryan Kessler, who split the Dallas defense and beat Stars goalie Marty Turco with a backhand shot 6:55 into the period.

The Canucks extended their lead to 3-1 when they took advantage of their second power play of the game. Kyle Wellwood won a puck battle in the corner and centered the puck to Sundin, who was all alone in front of the net and hammered the puck past Turco at the 10:21 mark.

The Stars had a chance to cut into the lead early the third when they had back-to-back power plays, including 46 seconds with a two-man advantage. But they were unable to break through.

Ott scored off a two-on-one rush with 11:48 remaining in the game to make it a 3-2 game, but the Canucks were able to extend their lead to 4-2 with 4:55 remaining. After Stars defenseman Nicklas Grossman broke his stick on a shot from the point, the Canucks got a four-on-two rush and Steve Bernier finished it off.

The Stars had one power play chance left and they pulled Turco for the extra attacker, but no luck.

The Canucks won their tenth straight game at home, establishing a new franchise record. The win gave them 83 points, tying them with Chicago for fourth place in the Western Conference.

“It’s just a product of how we’re playing as a team, winning ten in a row at home," said Vancouver defenseman Willie Mitchell. "We’re playing with a lot more consistency. We’re getting goals from a lot more people. Our defense, as a group, is playing really well as a whole. Our power play is going and our penalty kill is starting to get a little better. All those things are rounding into shape.”

The Stars now head to Calgary, where they play game two of their three-game road trip on Wednesday night.

Notes: Stars forward Jere Lehtinen returned to the lineup after missing the last six games with an upper body injury. ... Stars coach Dave Tippett said he expected to shuffle his lineup and insert some new players for Wednesday's game in Calgary.

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