Stars rally late again to tie, but fall in OT

For a third straight game, the Dallas Stars scored late in regulation to force overtime. But Monday night, they came up short in the extra period and fell, 3-2, to the Ottawa Senators at American Airlines Center.
Getting another point in the Western Conference standings was important, but the Stars felt they wasted an opportunity to get two against the Senators, who rank 29th in the NHL standings.

WATCH: [All Stars vs. Senators highlights]
"That was not a good game," said Stars defenseman Marc Methot. "That was ugly. We were lucky we got a point, in my opinion.
"I don't think we deserved it, but we'll take it and hopefully put this game behind us here."

"We played that team like where they are in the standings," said Stars center Tyler Seguin. "I think we forgot that we are still in the NHL and every team is good with the parity in this league. We played, myself included, like we were saving energy for tomorrow night (in Nashville)."
Seguin scored both Dallas goals including the game-tying tally with 1:08 remaining but Ottawa's Erik Karlsson scored on a breakaway with 2:19 left in overtime just after the Stars missed on a quality chance.
The Stars (37-23-6) lost goaltender Ben Bishop to a lower-body injury during the game. Bishop, who was injured when Dallas defenseman Dan Hamhuis fell on him in the crease, left the game after the first period and is expected to miss at least the next two games. The Stars also played the game without center Radek Faksa (foot) and defenseman Esa Lindell (illness). Both Faksa and Lindell will miss Tuesday's game in Nashville.
"Lindell isn't going to be on the trip, and Faksa won't play," Hitchcock said. "With Ben, we're probably going to need a couple of days to figure out a time frame on it so for sure he's not going to play tomorrow and Friday and then let's just see from there."

Craig Anderson stopped 33 shots for the Senators, who won for the second time in the last three games and are now 23-32-10 on the season.
"I think 3-on-3 is one of our strong suits," Anderson said. "Maybe we should try to take coinciding penalties throughout the game and get 3-on-3 going in the regular game. [Karlsson] has the breakaway speed, finds a way to finish even though he's Swedish."
The Stars got the game's first power play when Remi Elie drew a holding call on Alexandre Burrows and the Stars cashed in to score the only goal of the first 20 minutes. Seguin's centering pass deflected in off the skate of Ottawa defenseman Ben Harpur, and the Stars had a 1-0 lead 4:36 into the game.
The Senators drew even late in the second period by taking advantage of their second play. After Stars forward Tyler Pitlick broke his stick blocking a shot and after a couple of big saves by goalie Kari Lehtonen, Ottawa's Mike Hoffman scored from the right circle with 1.4 seconds left in the period to make it a 1-1 game heading into the third period.

The Senators took a 2-1 lead at 6:36 of the third when Matt Duchene scored from the left circle on the rush. Anderson had several good stops to keep the Stars at bay, but Seguin got the late equalizer to set the stage for extra playing time where Karlsson won just seconds after Stars defenseman John Klingberg and Devin Shore almost connected for the Stars.
"We thought we were going to take an easy couple of points and just play pond hockey, like Hitch likes to say, and that's what it was," said Seguin. "I don't know how to explain what we did tonight, but I think man-to-man and teammate-to-teammate we all let each other down here tonight with how we played."
"We got a point and tried everything we could to get the focus where it was, but some guys were good, and some guys struggled," said Hitchcock. "If it is a lesson learned for them, great but right now it's a point, and we've got to move on."
And they'll move on to Nashville where they'll take on the red-hot Predators Tuesday night.

Notes

What's Next

The Stars are in Nashville to take on the Predators on Tuesday night. The Predators have won eight straight games and have won two of three from the Stars this season. This is the Stars' ninth back-to-back of the season. They are 4-2-2 in second games so far in 2017-18.

Stars Lineup

Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Brett Ritchie
Devin Shore - Mattias Janmark - Alexander Radulov
Antoine Roussel - Jason Spezza - Tyler Pitlick
Gemel Smith - Jason Dickinson - Remi Elie
Marc Methot - John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis - Greg Pateryn
Stephen Johns - Julius Honka
Ben Bishop
Kari Lehtonen
Scratched: None
Injured:Radek Faksa (foot), Esa Lindell (illness), Martin Hanzal (back)

This story was not subject to approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mark Stepneski is an independent writer whose posts on DallasStars.com reflect his own opinions and do not represent official statements from the Dallas Stars. You can follow him on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.