by Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

Fatigued Stars fail to show up in the first period; lose.

The Dallas Stars got off to a slow start Saturday night in Minnesota and fell behind, fought back to get back into the game, but in the end came up short, losing 3-2 to the Minnesota Wild at the Excel Energy Center.

The loss was the fourth in the last five games (1-2-2) for the Stars, who are now 7-4-6 on the season.

It was a role reversal for the Stars Saturday night, at least for the first period. After outshooting their opponents 87-56 over the last two games, it was the Stars under siege in the first 20 minutes.

Minnesota held a 17-4 shots advantage and scored twice, tallying shorthanded with the Stars on a four-minute power play to take a 1-0 lead and then scoring late in the first to extend it to 2-0 over the Stars, who had played Friday night and had to travel to Minnesota.

"We knew it was going to be a tough go tonight," said Stars center Mike Modano. "We got off to a shaky start in the first, but we climbed our way back into the game and did some good things in the second to give us a chance at it."

The Stars battled back in the second, getting two power play goals from Loui Eriksson to tie the game by the 15:51 mark of the second.

But less than three minutes later, the Wild regained the lead when defenseman Marek Zidlicky's centering pass from behind the Dallas goal was accidentally knocked into the net by Stars defenseman Nicklas Grossman. That lead would hold up the rest of the game.

The Stars' comeback hopes in the third were thwarted by some penalty issues. Over the final 21:18 of the game they took a diving penalty, an abuse of officials bench minor for complaining about the diving call, a hooking call that shortened one of their two power play chances in the third period and a roughing minor.

"We got some penalty problems and discipline issues where we let them get to us, and we were playing catch up for most of the third," said Modano.

The Stars allowed a season-high 37 shots on goal in the game and the 21 shots they put on net matched their lowest total of the season.

Minnesota won for the third time in their last four games and improved to 6-10-0 on the season.

“It was a great first period,” said Wild head coach Todd Richards. “But I thought for 60 minutes, it was our best performance.”

The Stars don't play again until Thursday, when they play the Sharks in San Jose.

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