by Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

Stars get reamed by their former coach.

The buzzword around the Dallas Stars after Friday's game against the Phoenix Coyotes Friday night in Glendale, Ariz., was patience. The Stars didn't show it and the Coyotes made them pay for it, beating Dallas 5-2 at Jobing.com Arena.

"Our impatience really showed," said Stars head coach Marc Crawford. "They ended up getting a couple of opportunities because we turned pucks over because of our impatience. That's a learning curve for our group."

The Stars missed on three power play chances in the first period and found themselves down 1-0, and then Phoenix blew the game open with three goals in the second period to take a commanding 4-0 lead.

"They outskated us. They did everything better than we did," said Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas. "We turned the puck over and gave them odd-man rushes. When you turn the puck over and give that many chances to a team like Phoenix, they are going to capitalize. That's exactly what happened. They were just a better team out there."

The Stars started strong and got an early power play chance, but Coyotes goalie Ilya Bryzgalov made some sharp saves to keep the Stars off the board.

Just over two minutes after that penalty kill, the Coyotes struck for the first goal of the game when Robert Lang got the puck along the left boards, skated to the slot and ripped it past Stars goalie Marty Turco.

The Stars missed on two more power play chances in the period and then Coyotes made it a 2-0 game at 4:15 of the second period. After a Stars turnover in the neutral zone, Lauri Korpikoski scored on a two-on-one, backhanding the puck past Turco.

"Our power play needed to score. If we get a goal early it might change the complexion of the game, but if we don't we can't change how we're going to play," said Crawford. "You can't get impatient because it's a close game. ... You keep pouring on chances, you keep playing smart and you don't allow the other team to counterpunch. That's what we allowed them to do. We allowed them to counter against us by turning pucks over, and they took advantage of it."

Phoenix added two more goals by Korpikoski and Adrian Aucoin 26 seconds apart later in the period to make it 4-0 and chase Turco, who allowed four goals on 19 shots, from the net for the first time this season.

"We all feel like we let him down a little bit but he got the yank," Morrow said.

Coyotes defenseman Zbynek Michalek beat Alex Auld at 1:52 with a blast from the right point to make it a 5-0 game.

The Coyotes, who scored more than three goals in a game for the first time in 15 games, improved to 14-11-1 on the season. The line of Lauri Korpikoski (two goals), Matthew Lombardi (three assists), and Scottie Upshall (three assists) had a big night.

"I thought we used our speed to our advantage and with Lombo up the middle; he was skating great and making plays," Upshall said. "We were tough in those tough areas and we got pucks out and battled around the net and that's where we found our goals."

The Stars return to Dallas to take on Tampa Bay at American Airlines Center Saturday night.

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