Photo Credit: The AP
The Stars returned to home ice tonight after a triumphant showing in Pittsburgh against the Penguins on Tuesday, but couldn’t replicate the victory, falling 4-1 to the now 5-2-0 Toronto Maple Leafs.
The night began with a celebration of veteran Joe Pavelski’s 1,000th point scored in the NHL, a milestone that Pavelski is only the 10th American-born player to hit. Point 1,000 came for Pavelski in April against the Detroit Red Wings, and the number has increased to 1,007 since that 6-1 victory.
The rest of the night was unfortunately, for the most part, far less jubilant.
The Stars struggled to create any manner of consistent offense in the first period, as has become somewhat the norm thus far this season. Defenseman Thomas Harley had a promising look at a nearly empty net early in the period, and the Stars went on the first power play of the game just eight minutes into the period, but Dallas struggled to breach the Leafs zone with the man advantage.
With 20 seconds left in the powerplay, Wyatt Johnston took a slashing penalty, and halfway through the resulting 4-on-4, Leafs forward William Nylander threaded a backhand pass between Dallas defensemen Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen to Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly. Rielly caught Stars goalie Scott Wedgewood across his crease and lifted the puck into the net, putting the Leafs on the board first. The Stars wouldn’t record another shot on goal for the remainder of the period.
The second period saw a drastic change in the Stars offensive presence and aggressiveness. Less than three minutes into the period, Dallas had doubled its shots on goal from the first period and shifted the pace of the game. While the Stars offense continued to launch shots at Leafs goalie Joseph Woll, Dallas’ defense held off Toronto’s offense, preventing the Leafs from landing a single shot on goal for almost five minutes.
Dallas, the only team to have yet allowed a power play goal, shut down the second Leafs power play opportunity of the night, putting the Stars at 16 for 16 on the penalty kill; the second longest penalty kill streak in Stars history.
Just over halfway through the period, forward Matt Duchene skated the puck into the Leafs zone as the Leafs were finishing a line change, giving the Stars a three-on-two opportunity in the offensive zone. Duchene passed the puck to an open Mason Marchment who launched the puck over the shoulder of Woll, off the crossbar and into the goal, tying the game at one.
But with just under two minutes left, Leafs forward Mitchell Marner elevated a puck over the left shoulder of Wedgewood and gave the lead back to Toronto heading into the second intermission.
The start of the final frame looked much like the start of second, with the Stars taking up the offensive early in the period and denying the Leafs a shot on goal for the first five minutes of the period.
But at 15:59, defenseman Jani Hankanpää took a four-minute minor penalty for high sticking Toronto’s David Kampf, and drawing blood in the process. A minute into the penalty kill, Toronto forward Matthew Knies made a spectacular diving pass to keep the puck in the Stars zone, sending in to Reilly at the point. Rielly shot the puck through traffic in front of Wedgewood toward Leafs forward Tyler Bertuzzi who deflected the puck down and past Wedgewood, into the net. The Stars killed off the remainder of the double minor, but the Leafs, and namely Woll, wouldn’t allow the Stars a chance to recover.
With three and a half minutes left in the game, Stars head coach Pete DeBoer pulled Wedgewood from the goal in an attempt to create some late-game offense, but the effort was for naught as Toronto’s John Tavares scored an empty net goal with 11 seconds left in the game.
There’s no denying the Stars have a lot to work on after tonight. Special teams, while still proving to be pretty solid on the penalty kill, needs a lot of work on the power play. The continuation of the slow start, ideally, needs to be eliminated in full, or shortened drastically if nothing else. 20 minutes is far too long for a team to wait to hit its stride offensively.
But a lot has to be said for goalie Joseph Woll who faced down a lot of strong offensive looks from the Stars tonight. There may have only been one puck that crossed the line, but had there been a lesser goalie in net, the final score would no doubt be very, very different.
The Stars will finish out a short home stand Monday night when they face the Colombus Blue Jackets at the AAC.
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