Nashville Predators outclass Dallas Stars, 3-2, in front of the home crowd – NHL Recap
In front of the home crowd, Dallas Stars’ playoff hopes received another blow when Nashville Predators defeated, 3-2, them in a close National Hockey League (NHL) game on Sunday, February 19, 2012, at American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas.
After getting an early lead, Stars lost their way and allowed the visitors to dominate the game, which saw some good defensive plays from both the teams in the second and third period.
Stars are ranked at 10th spot in the Western Conference with 62 points after 59 games. They are still three points short of the Calgary Flames, who are placed at eight spot with 65 points.
The current performance is not as good as it should be for the team contending to reach the safe zone.
The Stars have won only of their last six games and the present defeat took their recent losing streak to two.
Stars’ coach, Glen Gulutzan, said after the game:
“As hard as it is to swallow, you've got to keep doing things right. The moment you veer away and start losing confidence, you're in trouble. We're doing the little things right, we're not getting the result."
Stars got the lead in the game when Michael Ryder scored at 6:49 in the first period.
He was assisted by Mike Ribeiro, who found the goal scorer skating towards the net and set the puck up for him. All Ryder needed to do was to just put it into the net.
The end of the period was, however, dominated by the Predators.
Within the last five minutes, Predators got two goals to get a one-goal advantage at the end of the period.
At 15:39, Gabriel Bourque provided the equaliser and much to the dismay of shorthanded Stars, Shea Weber scored the go-ahead goal at 19:59.
Colin Wilson increased Predators’ lead by scoring the only goal of the second period. At 16:05, he provided a backhanded goal from 20 feet, leaving the opponents in awe.
Stars finally got something to cheer about in the final period when Alex Goligoski scored to reduce the deficit to just one goal at 15:11.
The desperate final five minutes for Stars could not yield any positive result as they did not find the equaliser and lost the game.
The final goal scorer of the game, Goligoski, said after the loss:
"Another one-goal game. I think for the most part, we were maybe outworked a little bit tonight. The difference is that we give them maybe a freebie there at the end of the first. ... We were working hard, just not hard enough."
Predators are well within the safe zone with 74 points after 59 games and are placed at fifth spot in the Western Conference.
They are now going to face Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday, while the Stars will take on Montreal Canadiens on the same day.
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