Heika’s Take: Power play flounders as Stars lose 3-1 to Rangers

The Stars’ power play on home ice has been an issue all year, but on Friday it was especially problematic and highlighted in the worst ways.

Dallas went 0-for-7 (a full 17 minutes) on the man advantage and also allowed a shorthanded goal in a 3-1 loss to the New York Rangers. The defeat ended the longest homestand of the season at 3-3-0 and left a bad feeling as the team sank to 19-13-0, a .596 points percentage that puts them 12th in the league.

“We’ve got to be better,” said Stars coach Pete DeBoer. “You look at where we’re at, we’re right in the middle of things and we’re going to have to work our way out.”

The power play was both a blessing and a curse. Dallas finished with 21 shots on goal on the man advantage and had 42 for the game. The Stars dominated with a 42-30 edge in shots on goal, and an 80-47 split in shot attempts.

But with each save, New York goalie Igor Shesterkin seemed to gain confidence and Dallas players seemed to lose it.

“Igor was great in net,” said Rangers coach Peter Laviolette. “The penalty kills were fantastic. We had some power plays, too, which stretches a lot of guys, as far as minutes go. The guys were resilient tonight and just stayed with it. Just a really good win.”

The game was wild from the start as Stars goalie Jake Oettinger gave up a goal in the first minute, but it was wiped out by an offside call. Dallas captain Jamie Benn then scored, but it also was negated on an offside review. Finally, Stars forward Roope Hintz scored at the 1:46 mark and the Stars seemed to have control of the momentum.

That’s when the power play hijinx started. Dallas was in the middle of its first power play when Reilly Smith was able to steal a puck from Thomas Harley at the right point and take off up the left wing. Smith beat Oettinger for his seventh goal of the year and the game was tied at the 10:44 mark of the first period, and the tone in the building shifted. The Stars had really seemed to have control of the game against a Rangers team that entered on a 3-11-0 slide and was struggling to find any sort of positivity.

That Smith goal lit a spark.

“It’s one thing if the power play doesn’t score, but it can’t take momentum from your group, and that’s what it did tonight,” DeBoer said. “We gave up the shorthanded goal, that was the difference in the game. It changed the game.”

The Rangers took a 2-1 lead late in the first period when Vincent Trocheck was able to slip a shot through a crowd and past Oettinger.

From there on out, the power play dominated the news.

Dallas had two man advantages to finish out the first period and three more in the second. Then, they got a five-minute major in the third with the score still 2-1. Rangers forward Matt Rempe was given a major penalty (and a game misconduct) for boarding Miro Heiskanen, who had to leave the game. Heiskanen missed the ensuing power play time, and Shesterkin foiled the Stars at every turn, and that was pretty much it for the game.

“I saw Miro’s face after...not good,” said Benn. “You hate seeing that against our best player. We didn’t [make them pay for the penalty]. Our [power play] is letting us down right now.”

Heiskanen returned to play. He finished with 24:06 in ice time.

The five-minute penalty was the most frustrating, because Dallas had plenty of chances and could have tied the game. Yet, they continued to struggle with getting the puck into the net at home.

“We didn’t score and we had plenty of chances,” said Jason Robertson, who assisted on Hintz’s goal in the first period. “We didn’t score."

When asked why, Robertson said, “I think it was a mixture of everything. We had a lot of minutes, so every detail could have been better.”

Stacking that on top of the Toronto defeat on Wednesday, Dallas has lost two in a row and now has to look at fixing some significant problems before playing in Utah on Monday to lead them into a three-day break.

“It’s not a good feeling, because I thought we came out ready to play and I thought we were executing,” DeBoer said. “Our five-on-five game was good, and then the momentum shifts with the shorthanded goal, and then it’s on us to stop the bleeding. I thought we played in some spurts tonight and I thought Jake made a couple of big saves to keep it close. Obviously, Shesterkin played well for them, but we’ve got to be better.”

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 @MikeHeika.