Heika's Take: 'The glass half full'

The Stars did a lot of good on Monday night.
But, the Buffalo Sabres did just enough more.
As a result, Buffalo took a 3-2 win in overtime at American Airlines Center.

"I loved our start," Stars coach Pete DeBoer said of an early goal and a 10-0 lead in shots on goal to start the game. "I thought we could have been up 3, 4-0 in the first 10 minutes. And then you don't finish those, and I think we fell into a little bit of a trap where we thought it was going to be easy. The middle part of that game, they were hungrier, and they won more battles. I thought in the third, we kind of reset and got it going again and played pretty well."
Dallas finished with a 31-25 advantage in shots on goal and had a ton of scoring chances. They also managed a valuable penalty kill late in the game, which helped force overtime. And Roope Hintz returned from a seven-game injury absence and was on the ice for both Dallas goals.
Hintz was a big part of the night. The No. 1 center started on a line with Mason Marchment and Denis Gurianov, but then the Stars were put on the power play a minute into the game. It reunited Hintz with his first power play buddies, and they cashed in quickly. Joe Pavelski whipped a pass cross-ice to Hintz, who found Jamie Benn at the doorstep for a tap-in.
"Good first night for him," DeBoer said of Hintz. "I didn't want to overplay him. He's been out two-plus weeks. He started really strong, and I saw a little fatigue on him as the game went on, but what a great asset to put back into our lineup. He changes our team."

The first goal was a great sign, and it sure looked like the Stars were on their way to an easy win. However, Buffalo rallied back and started to dominate possession of the puck.
Goalie Craig Anderson made some phenomenal saves in the first period and really gave his team a chance to stay in the game. And while it would have been easy to blame the Stars for not finishing some great chances, DeBoer preferred to give Anderson credit.
"You have to give Craig Anderson some credit," DeBoer said. "Put it on him. The other night we're up 4-0 on probably less than that number of quality chances. I think our group knows how to finish, so I give the goalie credit."
The Sabres grabbed a lot of momentum from their goalie's play and started to control a large part of the game. Buffalo finished with a 53-49 advantage in shot attempts, and scored two goals to take a 2-1 lead, and then DeBoer reunited Hintz with Pavelski and Jason Robertson. The trio cashed in when Pavelski found Robertson with a great pass and Robertson scored his 32nd goal of the season six minutes into the third period.
"It's not brain surgery," DeBoer said. "We didn't have much going and those guys tend to get a lot going. It's that simple."
Dallas was able to grind through the third period and found a way to get a point out of the game. The Stars are 28-13-8 and lead the Western Conference with 64 points. Buffalo moves to 24-19-3 and is 7-3 in games that go to overtime or shootouts. Dallas falls to 3-8 in games that move past regulation.
"We're not winning enough of them, so it comes into play for sure," Pavelski said of the lost point in overtime. "I'm sure we'll talk about it and figure it out. At the end of the day, we've got to make a play and find a way to come out on top."

DeBoer said he wanted to concentrate on the positive aspects of the game.
"It's a long season, they're a good team," he said. "They've got a lot of speed and you're going to have games like this. We found a way to get a point. We got a big kill at the end to preserve the point. I think that's the glass half full perspective."
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 Twitter @MikeHeika.