Stars determined to rebound against Panthers in 2nd game of Global Series Finland

TAMPERE, Finland -- There was no yelling. There were no ultimatums. None of that was necessary, according to Pete DeBoer.

The Dallas Stars coach was not happy with the performance of his team in a 6-4 loss to the Florida Panthers in the first game of the 2024 NHL Global Series Finland presented by Fastenal at Nokia Arena on Friday.

The Stars came out flat and had a disastrous first period.

They allowed Evan Rodrigues to score 28 seconds into the game, the record for the fastest NHL goal scored outside of North America. Aleksander Barkov, the hometown hero, scored on a long-range shot off an odd-man rush for a 2-0 Panthers lead, and Anton Lundell later scored a power-play goal to send the Stars into their dressing room facing a 3-1 deficit.

But DeBoer said he never raised his voice, laughing when a reporter asked if it was a noisy room during the first intermission.

“[The message] was pretty clear,” DeBoer said. “It wasn’t X’s and O’s, it was about competitiveness. We had warned them, that’s a team that is going to push you out of the rink if you are not willing to compete for the puck, win battles, net fronts. We didn’t do that in the first period. I just politely pointed that out.”

The Stars (7-3-0) were better during the final 40 minutes but couldn’t get any closer than 3-2 early in the second period. Florida answered with three goals before Dallas scored twice late to make it cosmetically more appealing.

When asked to pinpoint the problem, Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen said, “The start. We weren’t good enough in the first period. We weren’t winning battles and if you are losing them, it’s hard to get the puck and play on offense. That changed a little in the second and we started getting more chances, but we have to have a better start.”

The Stars feel it’s good that they play the Panthers again here Saturday (noon ET; Victory+, SCRIPPS, NHLN, SN1). No time to dwell on the past.

They know they can be better. They insist they will.

A split of the back-to-back is now the goal, so they can head back to Dallas on Sunday with their heads held high.

The Panthers (8-3-1) are the defending Stanley Cup champions, having won the Cup Final in seven games against the Edmonton Oilers, the team that ousted the Stars in the Western Conference Final in six games.

Starting in a hole against a team like that is a recipe for disaster, DeBoer said.

“They make you work to get the puck back,” he said, adding that his team didn’t do that work early in the game.

That’s uncharacteristic for Dallas. It had won two straight games, allowing a total of four goals against the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks. The Stars had allowed two or fewer goals in six of their first nine games.

So what happened?

Forward Jason Robertson said the team was a mess all over the ice, routinely breaking down and missing assignments.

“Sloppy breakdowns, uncharacteristic from our guys, and they capitalized,” he said. “They are the Stanley Cup champions for a reason; they can score goals. The majority of their chances were breakdowns that we can fix. We are going to give stuff up, but we can’t give up those grade-A’s on breakdowns.”

There’s no shame in losing to the champs, but there is shame, the Stars said, in the way they went about the loss.

Not even a strong finishing kick in the third period could salve the wound. Mavrik Bourque scored the first goal of his NHL career, and Jamie Benn also scored as the Stars tilted the ice in their favor for the final 20 minutes.

The Stars were chasing the game, taking chances. Their risk profile was more aggressive, as Panthers coach Paul Maurice put it.

“We can’t just be happy with our third period,” Robertson said. “It’s not good enough.”

Defenseman Esa Lindell, who had a goal and an assist, had a laundry list of areas for Dallas to improve: battle level, net-front presence, special teams -- you name it, it needs to be better, he said.

“I think just overall we were a little bit behind all night,” he said. “Of course, it’s not the start we wanted and then it’s tough to chase from behind.

“You get to the next game quickly. Clearly, we want to improve some things and so do they. I think overall we want to be better.”