Another Stars overtime loss – Defending Big D
Dallas fell 4-3 in overtime to the Montreal Canadiens Sunday afternoon at home.
This is Dallas’ fifth loss in a row, although three of those have been in overtime. Although it is not ideal, Glen Gulutzan said he is not in panic mode yet. The head coach emphasized that he is taking things day by day and is hopeful his team’s record will improve on the impending roadtrip.
Nine minutes into the game, the Canadiens struck first. Forward Brendan Gallagher got an assist from Phillip Danault and Alexandre Carrier to put the Habs on the board.
Mavrik Bourque, who is from Quebec, sent a wraparound equalizer shot through goalie Samuel Montembeault after retrieving the puck from the boards, following a pass from Jason Robertson. This is his seventh goal of the season, and marks a promising rest of the season for the young forward.
“I thought he had good jump,” Gulutzan said. “And, he had good jump when he played Montreal, too. So, special game for him. But I’ve liked his game as of late, I thought he was effective tonight.”
Dallas drew a power play when Ivan Demidov got called for holding Matt Duchene, but had trouble entering Montreal’s zone and ended up not scoring. The Canadiens a chance of their own with less than 30 seconds remaining after Jamie Benn tripped up Lane Hutson, but time expired before Montreal could get anything going.
The second period began with Dallas killing that continued power play but soon had to jump back on defense when Ilya Lyubushkin went to the box for hooking. That two-minute advantage ended scoreless for Montreal.
Wyatt Johnston, the league’s leader in power play goals, showed just why he holds that title a few minutes later. The Canadiens got penalized for too many men on the ice and the top power play unit came out strong. Thomas Harley passed from the middle of the zone to Mikko Rantanen on his right, who whipped the puck towards a net-front Johnston. This is the forward’s 21st goal of the season and 15th on the power play.
Montreal bounced right back, however, when Olivier Kapanen scored off a pass from Demidov. The chase continued, with the score tied 2-2.
Sam Steel got called for slashing in an attempt to help Dallas enter Montreal’s zone, and this time, his mistake was regrettable for the Stars. Juraj Slafkovsky scored, and took the lead as the period winded down.
“Probably the biggest thing is that second period — you take four penalties, right? So first of all, you lose a lot of guys, momentum wise, when you take four and then you give them an opportunity, obviously they go up 3-2, and then it’s a battle back in the third,” Gulutzan said. “We do have to clean up some. We do have to clean up that.”
Trailing, the Stars entered the third looking for an answer. None came, even as Benn got tripped up and hit his face on the ice. The officials determined there was no penalty on the play, despite the drops of blood the captain left on the ice and the outraged Stars fans screaming their disapproval. Benn is being evaluated and Gulutzan said he will know more in the morning.
Wyatt Johnston eased some of that pain when he puts the puck in from Miro Heiskanen’s pass that ricocheted off of defenseman Mike Matheson’s skates to bring the score to 3-3. But time began to run out, and both teams could not score on their respective power plays.
Another Stars game headed to overtime.
Dallas and Montreal went back and forth. Each team had chances to tip the scale, and Johnston almost did. Montembeault made an impressive stop and allowed the Canadiens to get a chance to bounce back. Ultimately, Hutson put the game winner past Oettinger and collected a 4-3 win for his team.
The Stars, who are historically good on the road, are hoping to bounce back as they embark on a two-week trip on Tuesday, starting with a matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes at 6 p.m. CT.
“We were on the road great the whole season, so far. So, we got lots of confidence there,” Radek Faksa said postgame. “It’s time to step up. We didn’t play really good after the break. So, it’s time to step up.”
