The Dallas Stars fell 5-3 to the Vancouver Canucks Thursday night at home in a back and forth battle that ultimately slipped away.
The Stars took control of the game almost immediately when Maverick Bourque scored his first goal of the season after the puck deflected off a Canucks’ stick and slipped past goalie Thatcher Demko.
Vancouver looked sloppy in the first period, especially in their own zone. Compared to Dallas’ 14, the Canucks only put up 6 shots on goal and had trouble getting anything by Stars’ goalie Casey DeSmith. DeSmith, who made his first appearance in the regular season, was not able to stop the Canucks.
The Stars ended the period on a high, when forward Mikko Rantanen put up a point during the first power play of the game after he got high sticked by Canuck Jake DeBrusk.
But then, the script flipped.
Vancouver survived another Dallas power play at the start of the second, and took command of the entire period. Forward Filip Chytil capitalized on a breakaway and put his team on the board. The Canucks got their own power play chance and Brock Boesser slung one past DeSmith to tie things up in the middle of the second period.
And they didn’t stop there. A little over a minute later, Vancouver’s Max Sasson found room and gave the Canucks their first lead of the game at 3-2. They kept rolling, and when Conor Garland intercepted Dallas forward Colin Blackwell’s pass, a wide open net allowed him to send another puck past DeSmith.
“…They were down. So they’re going to come hard, and they’re going totake some chances that they might not usually take, and they’re going to get some of those battles won,” Thomas Harley said. “And we have to do a better job of winning our wall battles, continuing to forecheck and get their defenseman stopped behind their net and playing our game.”
The Stars got an immediate chance to respond after going on the power play due to a tripping call, but could not manage to score. As the minutes ticked down, Dallas’s desperation increased. They found themselves spending precious time on a penalty kill after Harley took a hooking penalty.
With three and a half minutes left, a Canucks’ interference penalty gave Wyatt Johnston room to sink a power play goal, bringing the score to 3-4 and jolting a little life in the team.
But it was too little, too late for the Stars. Despite their best efforts, the Canucks scored an empty net goal, and Dallas could not shift the momentum in their favor and suffered their first loss of the season 3-5.
“Our challenge is to manage the game right now, when we’re up,” head coach Glen Gulutzan said. “We came out, we started well, we looked good. We were in control. And then it’s these leads where we tend to flatline a little bit.”
The Stars will hit the road on Saturday looking for redemption as they travel to St. Louis to take on the Blues at 6 p.m. CT.