Heika’s Take: Stars fail to rally late, lose second straight road game in Buffalo

The Stars did some good things Tuesday.

Just not enough.

As it was in their only other loss this season, Dallas met a very motivated team on the road and lost 4-2 to Buffalo. The Sabres received exquisite goaltending from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and some hardworking goals to forge a 3-0 lead. Buffalo then held on as Dallas received late goals from Thomas Harley and Tyler Seguin and almost made a real game of it.

However, a lot of the tone was set early as the Stars squandered three power play opportunities and Buffalo’s maligned penalty kill stepped up.

“The story of the game was their execution was better than ours, power play included but 5 on 5 too,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “I thought they were hungrier than us. It’s tough to go on the road and win when you’re not as desperate as the other team.”

Dallas falls to 5-2-0 while Buffalo moves up to 3-4-1. As it was in the Washington loss last week, the Stars were an enticing opportunity for the opponent. Dallas is posting great numbers and getting a lot of buzz as one of the Stanley Cup favorites, and that can become real on the ice.

“It’s been like that two years in a row now,” said defenseman Miro Heiskanen. “They’re coming hard every time against us, so we have to be better and more ready for that.”

Heiskanen is a microcosm of the Stars’ problems. He had seven shots on goal Tuesday, but still doesn’t have a point on the season. He played 26:23, but was minus-3. He quarterbacked the first power play unit and the Stars didn’t have a shot on goal in their first two attempts. They finished the night 0-for-3 and are now 2-for-21 on the season.

The man advantage scored last game against Edmonton and that kind of turned the game around. It could have done it again vs. the Sabres.

“It’s frustrating,” said captain Jamie Benn. “It seems like we really haven’t found it this year. We’re just not working hard enough; not working hard enough away from the puck, supporting the puck, not winning any battles.”

Dallas had its three power plays with the score tied 0-0. Jake Oettinger was playing well against Luukkonen, and it sure seemed like the first goal was going to be huge in this one. The Sabres got that first goal 12 minutes into the second period on a play that sort of defined the game. After a chaotic shift, a Sabres shot deflected off the crossbar and high in the air. Peyton Krebs worked in behind the Stars defense and Oettinger and tapped the puck in out of midair.

“Through half of that game, I thought it was pretty even,” DeBoer said. “We had some looks, they had some looks. They executed and stuck a couple in the net. We had some looks and didn’t stick them in the net. That was the difference.”

The Stars had a few odd-man rushes where they failed to execute or Luukkonen came up big. Then, when Buffalo got a two-on-one, Jason Zucker made a nice pass and Ryan McLeod finished it off for a 2-0 lead.

Tage Thompson added his fifth goal of the year on a third period one-timer, and that pretty much clinched the game. Dallas pulled Oettinger with about six minutes left, which led to goals from Harley and Seguin to make it 3-2, but Dallas never got close to a tying goal and Buffalo added an empty-netter for the final score.

The Stars will play at Boston on Thursday as the travel continues to be a challenge before the team heads to Finland for two games against Florida. But just as they have to be able to handle the intensity of the opposition, they also have to navigate the travel.

“We weren’t good enough tonight,” DeBoer said.

The power play will continue to get pressure until it starts to produce. The Stars saw the return of injured players Seguin, Matt Dumba and Sam Steel. Dumba logged 17:10 and had two hits. He was moved back onto the pairing with Heiskanen and also helped out on the penalty kill. Seguin jumped back onto a line with Matt Duchene and Mason Marchment and scored his goal. He played 16:05 and was plus-2. And Steel was very noticeable. He logged just 12:58, but had four hits and went 7-of-9 on faceoffs. He was moved up in the third period to provide some jump.

The coaches have juggled lines and shuffled the power play units, but they haven’t secured the results just yet.

“It’s pretty normal when you’re struggling to mix it up and find a spark,” Benn said. “It’s on us as the players to step up here. It’s been long enough already.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @MikeHeika.