DALLAS — In the dying moments of a third-period power play during the Stars’ 4-1 loss to Vancouver, the puck found Esa Lindell abandoned in front of the Canucks net.
Vancouver goaltender Thatcher Demko was stickless on the other side of the crease. Roope Hintz gave Lindell a perfect chance to change the game. Faced with a yawning cage interrupted by a flailing Demko and a checking Elias Pettersson, Lindell banged his shot off the post.
It was part of a flurry of shots on the power play, as Demko parried away the rest, an assortment of one-timers from the wings and chances at the net. The Stars couldn’t solve him.
Demko finished with 35 saves and Pettersson scored twice as the Canucks snapped the Stars’ three-game win streak and stayed alive in the Western Conference playoff race. Bo Horvat added an empty-net goal, and J.T. Miller added an goal with 38.9 seconds left in the game.
Jacob Peterson scored a goal in his return to the Dallas lineup, as Jake Oettinger made 27 saves in defeat.
Saturday was a chance for the Stars to bury the Canucks in the Western Conference playoff chase.
Vancouver entered the game four points back of the Stars with three more games played. That’s a sizeable gap, no doubt, and a win could have all but finished the Canucks’ pursuit of the final wild-card spot in the West. The Canucks have had a resurgence under new coach Bruce Boudreau, but closing that gap in the final 15 games might have been too much to ask.
It was an opportunity for Dallas to give themselves one fewer team to battle with in the last month of the season. Instead, the Canucks will hang in the race, no matter how unlikely their chances of overtaking the Stars in the standings.
Pettersson — the No. 5 pick in 2017 — dazzled as the Stars played their 11th game without Miro Heiskanen — the No. 3 pick in 2017. Pettersson scored his first goal on a power-play one-timer, taking advantage of an unnecessary holding penalty by Jani Hakanpää and tying the game at 1.
In the third period, Pettersson gave the Canucks the lead for good by sniping a shot from the wing past Oettinger. Pettersson’s shot went between Joe Pavelski’s legs and picked the top corner on the far side.
Pettersson’s goals were all Demko needed to shut the door on the Stars.
Demko made 25 saves in a Canucks win over the Stars in November in Vancouver, repeatedly robbing Jamie Benn on that evening four months ago. On Saturday night, he frustrated a handful of different Stars.
Peterson’s goal was his 11th of the season, and his backhand finished a nice feed from Jamie Benn. All of Peterson’s goals have come at even-strength for the Stars, and his 11 tallies at 5 on 5 rank fifth on the team.
