Edmonton Oilers 5, Dallas Stars 4 (shootout)

by Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

Stars give up the charity point in barn-burner.

The Dallas Stars did a lot of good things again Tuesday night, but once again it didn't add up to two points. Like opening night, it added up to one point via the shootout loss, this time by a 5-4 score to the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place.

"We have to keep building," said Stars head coach Marc Crawford. "It was another good effort, but we won't be satisfied with the effort because we didn't get the two points. I know if the effort stays at this level and we get a little bit better execution on our special teams and possibly our faceoffs, then that will probably be the difference."

The Stars gave up two power play goals and Edmonton scored a third goal just seconds after one of their power play chances expired.

"I don't think we can win many games giving up four goals," said Stars captain Brenden Morrow. "Our penalty kill kind of let us down. They've got a good power play. We prepared well for it, we just didn't execute."

The Stars, who outshot Edmonton 34-24, got off to a slow start and fell behind when Edmonton scored an early power play goal, but stepped up the pressure as the game moved along.

They held leads of 2-1, 3-2, and 4-3 in the game Tuesday night, but the Oilers were able to bounce back and draw even to force overtime and the shootout.

"We're actually playing pretty good hockey," Stars goalie Marty Turco said. "But we still only got two out of four points to start the year. The level of play is right, the mindset is right, we just have to start converting."

Edmonton's Ales Hemsky scored the lone goal in the shootout, partially fanning on a shot that turned into an off speed shot that slipped by Turco.

Oilers goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, who had 30 saves on the night and won his 300th career game, stopped Brad Richards in the shootout. Mike Ribeiro shot wide and James Neal hit the post.

"We didn't score a goal and we let one in and that's all it takes [in a shootout]," said Turco.

The Stars got two goals and an assist from Morrow. Neal scored his third goal of the season, this one shorthanded. Stephane Robidas also scored for the Stars, who were 2-6 on the power play on the night.

Game recap

The Oilers struck first, taking advantage of the first power play chance of the game. Ladislav Smid wrapped the puck around the boards in the Dallas end, Andrew Cogliano backhanded it to the front of the net and Mike Comrie tapped it past Marty Turco at the 3:39 mark to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead.

The Stars drew even a little more than two minutes later when Trevor Daley put a puck on net and Brenden Morrow's rebound attempt when off an Edmonton player's skate and past Oilers goalie Nikolai Khabibulin at the 5:48 mark of the first period.

Each team scored twice in the second period. The Stars took a 2-1 lead at the 5:57 mark when Turco set up James Neal and Toby Petersen on a shorthanded two-on-one and Neal scored from the right circle at the 5:57 mark.

But just 38 seconds later, the Oilers tied it up on the same power play chance when Sam Gagner scored off a blast from the top of the left circle.

The Stars got the lead back at 11:07 with a power play goal. Brad Richards sent a pass to Stephane Robidas, who beat Khabibulin from the right point.

But the Oilers scored late in the period to tie it again when Dustin Penner drove the net and roofed a shot over Turco with 1:54 remaining in the second.

The Stars got the lead again with another power play goal early in the third when Morrow beat Khabibulin five-hold from just below the bottom of the right faceoff circle.

And again the Oilers bounced back to tie. Just as an Oilers power expired, Denis Grebeshkov made a nice keep at the Dallas blue line, got the puck back moments later, put it on net, had it bounce off Stars defenseman Nicklas Grossman, over Turco and into the net.

For the second straight game, the Stars went to a shootout and came up short. Khabibulin stopped Richards, Mike Ribeiro shot wide and Neal hit the post. The only goal came when Ales Hemsky partially fanned on his shot and it slipped past Turco.