I probably could have copy and pasted what I wrote about the game against the Edmonton Oilers just a few days ago.
Something about being the better team and winning the stats battle, but ultimately losing the game. We’ve heard this song before. The Dallas Stars outplayed the Calgary Flames in nearly every way possible and lost. It’s a refrain that has happened too many times to count this season.
What do the numbers say about how the Stars played?
Dallas didn’t exactly start the game all that well save for Jason Spezza’s early goal. In fact, neither team played all that well in the 1st period.
The 2nd period was a different story. The Stars came out with a purpose and peppered Jonas Hiller for ten minutes, with nothing to show for it. The Flames responded for their goalie and quickly took control of the middle frame, taking advantage of what was most likely a frustrated Stars’ team.
The 3rd period is called score-effects. Calgary went into prevent mode and Dallas could only convert their effort into one goal.
In these posts, I will also be including a chart that shows scoring chances. Scoring chances are loosely defined as shots generated from inside the black outlined area below.
Defensively, the Stars played well until the ten minute mark of the second period. They limited the Flames to only three scoring chances during that time.
You can also see exactly when the Stars’ went flat in the 2nd period and it cost them.
Leaders for the Stars in individual scoring chances were Antoine Roussel (7), Tyler Seguin (5), Jamie Benn (4), and Trevor Daley (4).
In these posts, you will also see a few abbreviations and terms used.
CF, CA, C+/- and CF% are Corsi For, Corsi Against, and Corsi For Percentage. They are defined as follows,
Corsi For: The number of on-ice shot attempts (on goal, missed, or blocked) taken by the player’s team.
Corsi Against: The number of on-ice shot attempts (on goal, missed, or blocked) taken by the opposing team.
Corsi%: The percentage of on-ice shot attempts (on goal, missed, or blocked) taken by the player’s team; also known as CF%.
The Stars’ didn’t have a single player fall below 50%. Rookie blueliner Jryki Jokipakka and veteran Vernon Fiddler led all players with 80%.
Once again the Stars win the least important category, statistics, and lose the most important, goals.
Graphs and numbers taken from War-on-Ice and hockeystats.ca