Canucks 5, Stars 2

Just like against San Jose on Saturday, the Stars got the start they wanted.

They outshot and outhustled the Canucks. And they got a Brendan Morrison goal against his former team to grab the early 1-0 lead.

And just like on Saturday, they took a penalty and gave up a goal on the power play. A few minutes later, they take another penalty against one of the hottest power play units in the league, and a Sami Salo shot from the point deflects in off Daniel Sedin's skate and the Stars are chasing the game.

And right now, the Stars just don't have the offensive talent to chase games.

Which goes back to the penalties they took in the first to turn the game around. The first was a hold by Fabian Brunnstrom at the 10:32 mark. The second and third came courtesy of a Mark Fistric high stick to the mouth of Daniel Sedin.

Both were needless penalties. And when you're up against a unit that scored on both of the chances they got last week against you, you don't needlessly put them on the job.

But that's what the Stars did tonight.

And that's where they lost it.

Gravypan's Three Stars:

3. Henrik Sedin, VAN -Scored the fifth power play goal for the Canucks against the Stars in the span of just over a week to make it 3-1 early in the second then added an empty netter.

Earlier, his brother took a Mark Fistric stick to the face to setup Vancouver's second power play goal of the first, which he intentionally deflected in off his skate and into the net.

Which begged the question of why those kinds of goals are allowed, but pucks propelled into the net via a distinct kicking motion are not.-*

2. Roberto Luongo, VAN - Had a shaky start with the Delay of Game and surrendering the game's first goal 4:44 in. But he settled down and was solid in stopping 35 shots on the night.

1. Ryan Kesler, VAN - His first period PPG completely deflated the Stars tonight. Before Dallas knew it, it was 3-1 and Kesler got it all started. Granted, Marty Turco did him a huge favor by stumbling to his right on Kesler's shot to leave the whole left side of the net open.

*- Aww, hell, might as well tackle this topic since #22 for Vancouver gave me just reason.

Short of a puck being picked up and thrown into the net, I think any puck that deflects off anything should count as a goal. The NHL always tries to promote the offensive part of the game. So why do they have rules that forbid kicking pucks or knocking pucks into the net with the glove while allowing 'incidental' deflections off other pieces of equipment?

It just doesn't make sense.

Either allow just about everything, or nothing that doesn't go in off a stick.

Update: For some reason, I thought it was Henrik who got high-sticked in the first. In fact, I even checked the offical play-by-play sheet on NHL.com to be sure.

And I still screwed that one up.

Nice catch, Max.

And for the record, it was Daniel Sedin's mug that took the abuse