DALLAS — After Saturday’s 3-1 loss to the Devils, Stars coach Rick Bowness delivered a clear message to his team.
“If we play like that, we’re going home in three weeks, it’s as simple as that,” Bowness said. “That’s what I told them after the game. We play like that, three weeks from today, we’re going home, if that’s what we want. You can say all the right things all the time. It’s not what you say. It’s what you accept and what you do.”
New Jersey scored twice in the final 1:11 to break a 1-1 tie, denying Dallas any points on an afternoon in which they submitted a subpar performance. Nico Hischier scored the game-winning goal, looping and turning his way around Tyler Seguin towards the net-front and evading Jake Oettinger’s attempted poke check.
Ten seconds later, Pavel Zacha scored on the rush to give the Devils some breathing room. Ryan Suter’s 100th career goal gave the Stars a 1-0 lead in the second period, as his power-play point shot on a won faceoff went through a Jamie Benn screen at the net-front. Ty Smith’s goal 4:26 into the third period tied the game.
“We didn’t play even close enough to how we should and how we can,” Stars defenseman Esa Lindell said. “It’s a tight race to the playoffs, so we have to ramp it up again tomorrow.”
The loss meant that the Stars remained in the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference with 11 games remaining. They failed to pick up ground on Nashville, who hosted Florida on Saturday. Vegas, which entered the day two points behind the Stars, played the Coyotes on Saturday.
“We didn’t look like a team that wanted to make the playoffs, I’ll tell you that,” Bowness said. “Let’s be honest. What do our eyes tell us? There wasn’t near enough desperation in our game, it’s as simple as that. It’s everybody, and they can’t point fingers. They’ve got to look at themselves because it was everybody. We didn’t have one person out there, for me, that played a good game.”
The game-end totals don’t scream about an empty performance. At 5 on 5, the Stars had more shot attempts and shots on goal than the Devils. For the first time in 11 days, the Stars scored a power play goal. But a toothless third period ruined any chance to exiting Saturday with points.
The Stars had just two shots on goal in the opening 11 minutes of the third period. There were no meaningful scoring chances generated. A power play went nowhere. And the Devils outscored them, 3-0, in the final period.
“It wasn’t, obviously, the game we needed to show up and play,” Suter said. “They came at us, they came hard, and we weren’t ready for them.”
On Hischier’s game-winning goal, he owned the puck.
He skated down the boards trying to lose Benn. After Seguin switched on to him, he looped behind the net into the circle. He cut on a dime and found a clear path to the Stars crease. Unmolested, he found the back of the net.
“I expect a little more intensity, knock him on his butt,” Bowness said. “And we didn’t.”
Suter: “That’s tough when you get a forward down low. You want to go help, but you can’t leave your guy and then it comes to you. It was a tough situation for Seggy to be in there. Next time, hopefully, we have a different result.”
Oettinger said if he could play it differently, he would stay back in his crease instead of going for the poke check.
“There’s a minute left in the game, you need your goalie to step up and make big saves to get it to overtime,” Oettinger said. “Obviously, I wasn’t able to do that.”
The Stars’ schedule in April is a favorable one. Entering Saturday, they had 12 games left. Eight were at home. Eight were against non-playoff teams. The date with the Devils was both.
But the schedule doesn’t matter if the Stars can’t take advantage of it. They have another chance on Sunday against the Blackhawks in Chicago.
“When it’s there for you, you’ve got to go get it,” Bowness said. “To me, it looked like we were very individualistic out there, we couldn’t make plays. Just didn’t look like a team effort out at all. That’s the most disappointing game we’ve had all year. By far.”
Gurianov scratched: Stars forward Denis Gurianov was a healthy scratch on Saturday afternoon after he missed two games because he was sick. Bowness said after the game that Gurianov was healthy enough to play.
Why was he a scratch?
“The other lines were all going good for two games, so all of a sudden, you get that stinker, it’s easy to second-guess it now,” Bowness said. “But the last two games, the lines have all been good. They have been. Tonight, they were all bad.”
It was the second game in the last two weeks that Gurianov has been scratched.
The Stars did receive reinforcements in the form of defenseman Esa Lindell (upper-body) and Jacob Peterson (lower-body). Lindell replaced Thomas Harley on defense, while Peterson went in for Joel Kiviranta up front.
Lindell missed the previous five games due to his injury.
“Even though it was just a week and a half, it felt longer because you’re not around the guys and you’re doing your own thing,” Lindell said. “It was nice to get back out there.”
— Suter scored his 100th career goal on Saturday, becoming the 16th American-born defenseman to reach the milestone.
“It’s cool, but that’s not why I play the game,” Suter said. “I play the game because you get to be with some good teammates, and it’s still fun to play. I don’t play, some guys do, I don’t play for the points. It’s about time, huh? Finally.”
— The Stars power play had five shots during their six power play opportunities (8:57 total).
“The power play is a reflection of our 5 on 5,” Bowness said. “Our 5 on 5 play was terrible today, so was the power play.”
