Stars lose to Canadiens, fail to close gap in Central Division

MONTREAL -- The Dallas Stars failed to close the gap on third place in the Central Division, losing for the fourth time in five games, 4-2 to the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday.
Dallas, which is on a 1-3-1 skid, lost its second straight on a six-game trip and an opportunity to maintain its hold on the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

"We had a really good game going, and a four-minute minor penalty] put us on the backpedal, and then I thought our checking in the neutral zone when we were killing the penalties put us in another tough spot," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. "It's two games in a row now we've had careless sticks, and it's hurt us."
***[\[WATCH: All Stars vs. Canadiens highlights\]*
Radek Faksa and Jamie Benn scored for the Stars (38-26-6), who are three points behind the Minnesota Wild for third place in the division, and tied with the Colorado Avalanche for the first wild card from the West.
Kari Lehtonen made 22 saves in his fourth straight start for Dallas.
Artturi Lehkonen had two goals, and Brendan Gallagher and Nikita Scherbak scored for Montreal (26-32-12), which scored three power-play goals.

"We gave them a lot of power plays and a lot of chances, and they executed," Benn said. "And that's something we can't do. I think we gave up three power-play goals and that's not going to win you any hockey games at this time of the season."
Antti Niemi made 36 saves for the Canadiens, who won the second of back-to-back games to end a five-game losing streak (0-3-2). Alex Galchenyuk and Jonathan Drouin each had two assists.
"We came out in the beginning of the game in the way we wanted, and we came out hard and put the forecheck on them," Lehkonen said. "So overall it was a really good game for us."
Montreal, which went 1-3-2 on a six-game trip, is 14 points behind the New Jersey Devils for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference.
"It's been a long road trip and we couldn't wait to be back home and play in front of our fans," said Galchenyuk, who set up Lehkonen's goal at 16:31 of the first period to tie it at 1-1.
Lehkonen made it 2-1 with a power-play goal at 8:41 of the second.

Gallagher scored Montreal's second power-play goal in 35 seconds, on a 5-on-3 advantage, to make it 3-1 at 9:16.
Alexander Radulov set up Benn's power-play goal at 18:20 to draw the Stars within 3-2. It was Radulov's first game in Montreal since he left the Canadiens to sign with Dallas as a free agent on July 3.
Scherbak made it 4-2 with the Canadiens' third power-play goal, at 9:26 of the third period, after Dallas defenseman Greg Pateryn was called for roughing.
"Penalties are always frustrating, especially since we've been taking so many lately," Pateryn said.
The penalty followed a collision with Canadiens forward Andrew Shaw, who had to be helped off the ice.
"He was knocked out as soon as he hit me," Pateryn said. "He knocked himself out when he hit me, and I didn't realize he was knocked out until he was on the ice and his eyes were in the back of his head. So a play like that, that's what happens sometimes."
Faksa gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 11:48 of the first when he deflected Pateryn's shot from the right point.

Goal of the game

Gallagher's goal at 9:16 of the second period.

Save of the game

Niemi's consecutive saves on Brett Ritchie, at 18:26 and 18:28 of the first period.

Highlight of the game

Scherbak's goal at 9:26 of the third period.

They said it

"It is bad, I mean, we need points. We're in a playoff race, so we didn't get it done. We put ourselves in that position, nobody else. It's our fault so we've got to regroup." -- Stars forward Alexander Radulov
"We talked about them, they're trying to make the playoffs and I think they're in the picture now, but there are a lot of teams catching up so we expected them to come out hard. We talked about it before the game and we had to come out as hard as them, and we managed that very well." -- Canadiens forward Alex Galchenyuk

Need to know

Stars defenseman Marc Methot left with an injury after blocking a shot by Galchenyuk before Gallagher's goal. … Radulov played his 300th NHL game. … Canadiens goalie Carey Price, who is out with a concussion, will be on the ice for a fourth straight day Wednesday, coach Claude Julien said before the game, but said Price is not ready to practice.

What's next

Stars:At the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; SN, TVAS, FS-SW, NHL.TV)
Canadiens: Host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, TSN2, RDS, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV)