Dallas Stars Shut Out By Columbus Blue Jackets in Frustrating Loss
VS.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | T | |
| Stars | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Blue Jackets | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Things just weren’t going the Dallas Stars’ way tonight. They fell hard against the Columbus Blue Jackets by a final score of 3-0. Catch the post game wrap-up here.
The Dallas Stars lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight at the American Airlines Center, 3-0. They’ll hope for a better result when they take on the Winnipeg Jets Tuesday night at home.
Recap
The first period consisted of a number of odd plays, but no goals were scored.
The second period had more energy, but didn’t go as planned for Dallas. When the Stars were skating toward the offensive zone with numbers, the puck hit the referee along the boards and killed the play. The Blue Jackets then gained possession and skated toward Dallas’ zone with an odd man rush of their own. They scored a goal against the Stars on that rush and took a 1-0 lead. Jamie Benn fought Columbus’ Brandon Dubinsky in an attempt to get the energy up, but it didn’t do too much. The Jackets took their 1-0 lead into the second intermission.
The third period saw Dallas focusing more on offense, but also saw Columbus take a 2-0 lead. Then with Kari Lehtonen pulled, the Jackets scored into the empty net to beat the Stars 3-0.
Thoughts and Observations
Discombobulated
Dallas seemed incapable of completing a pass, exiting their zone cleanly or getting quality shots on net tonight. They managed to outshoot the Jackets, but struggled to have any sort of consistency in their play. Far too many passes were to no one in particular or ended up on the opposition’s stick.
The defense couldn’t communicate with one another to get the puck out of the defensive zone and feed the offense. Dallas even surrendered a few breakaways while on the power play.
To put it frankly, this game was a mess for the Dallas Stars. Nothing was working with the skaters and it would be a challenge to pick anyone out as a solid player in victory green tonight.
Lehtonen Owned the Crease
The one relatively good takeaway from the game was Kari Lehtonen’s performance. He once again proved his ability to make time saves, even if the Stars’ skaters didn’t help him out too much.
No. 32 was there to stop breakaways. He defended against the numerous shots from the wide open slot. He was the best player on the ice for the Stars, but even his performance wasn’t great.
Nonetheless, it’s important to remember that Lehtonen’s ability to make timely saves and give his team a shot at a win is vital to success. It’s especially so in frustrating games like tonight.
Final Thoughts
Overall this game is one the Stars might as well discard from their memories. It wasn’t good in any area of their game and that amount of improvements may overwhelm some.
They have another shot to get back on the right track and finish out their three-game home stand with three of a possible six points. That hope is a motivator right for a Stars team that is struggling.
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