NHL Thursday night Match Analysis: Dallas Stars vs. New York Islanders 3-2
New York was certainly on the edge, entering the contest against Dallas after losing three straight and looking to snap the slump. The Stars did not make life for the Islanders any easier by grabbing their third straight victory, 3-2, on Thursday night, December 15, 2011, at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, United States.
"It's definitely a tough loss when you have the lead like that," New York Islanders' forward, P.A. Parenteau, said. "You are not playing your best hockey but you still have the lead. That's something we have to get better at, playing with the lead."
Richard Bachman was again in net for Dallas, since the Stars wanted to him to maintain his momentum, going after a spectacular 40 plus save performance against the New York Rangers, shutting them out 1-0.
Dallas was once in the top position of the Western Conference with a breakthrough 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season, now it stands at the third position behind the Chicago Blackhawks with 37 points.
The Stars are certainly looking for a bigger ending this time around and are hoping to go deep into the playoffs with a new ownership, coach and some changes in the roster.
Newly hired coach, Glen Gulutzan, who was the coach for their minor league affiliate in the American Hockey League (AHL), thinks that he and his team have finally found a good way of winning.
"We're at a point mentally that we know if we play a certain way, (we can) win," Glen Gulutzan said.
The visiting team failed to capitalise on an early power play opportunity when Matt Martin was booked at the 6:30 mark of the opening period for hooking, but Dallas did not stay behind for long with Loui Eriksson potting his 11th goal of the season, nearly two minutes later, on an assist from Jamie Benn and Trevor Daley.
The puck came back and forth from each defensive end, which had the teams scrambling to take control and Michael Grabner was able to fire off an equaliser with less than four minutes left to play in the first to settle the score, entering the mid period.
Kyle Okposo made the tie-breaker with less than two minutes remaining in the second and gave the Islanders a significant boost in their morale, entering the third and final period ahead by one.
The Islanders knew that if they were to topple the Dallas Stars, they would need to quickly extend their lead and save themselves from even a possible overtime extension, but Brenden Morrow was quick to react, levelling the match yet again when Tim Wallace was booked for interference, 57 seconds into the third.
Morrow potted his fifth on the added man advantage, 1:07 into the final period, while Jamie Benn picked up his second point of the night and first goal before the opening five minutes to take the match for Dallas.
"It was one of the plays we thought might be there. (Steve Ott) might tell you he was trying to sauce (a pass, but we) got a lucky bounce," Morrow said.
Dallas has been on the road for the past four contests now which has lead the across the country from the West and now to the East. The Stars have one more on the road before finally returning home, against the New Jersey Devils on Friday.
New York on the other hand, has yet to win a match in their past four and will be looking to do so against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.
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