Preds Fall to Stars to Finish Road Trip in Dallas

Mikael Granlund and the Predators had a late push, but it wasn't enough, as Nashville fell to the Dallas Stars, 3-2, on Sunday night at American Airlines Center. The result gives the Preds two losses in Dallas, a disappointing outcome to conclude the first road trip of the young season.
The Stars scored five goals on the power play in Friday's 7-0 win over the Preds, and Nashville surrendered three more on the man advantage in Sunday's game. The Predators also tallied one on the power play on Sunday, and almost tied it late with the extra attacker, but the effort didn't yield the desired results.

"We played a good third period, we had our chances to tie it up, but at the end of the day, I don't think we played good enough for our first two periods," Granlund said. "We've got to get better on the penalty kill, and that cost us this game. It was a good third period, but we've got to find a way to win these games."
"They came with a little more energy, and I thought we played well in the third, gave ourselves a chance at the end, but some huge saves by their goalie," Preds Associate Captain Ryan Ellis said. "It wasn't meant to be for us tonight."

The Stars jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Sunday with a pair of power-play goals - one in the first period, another in the second - but before the middle frame was out, Nashville found the back of the net for the first time in Dallas.
On a power play of their own, the JOFA line combined, as Viktor Arvidsson found Ryan Johansen, who then fed Filip Forsberg in the right circle. Nashville's leading goal-scorer beat Stars netminder Anton Khudobin with a wrist shot on the glove side for his fourth of the season to cut the Dallas lead in half.

The Stars got their third and final power-play goal of the night early in the third, but Granlund tipped home his first of the season at 9:59 of the final frame to give the Preds life once more. Nashville continued to pressure, but Khudobin made one more large stop on Arvidsson with the extra attacker present for the Predators to help seal the victory for Dallas.

"There's certain things we have to get better at," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "Our special teams again, it's the difference in the game, so that has to be a focus coming in. I think we just have to evaluate certain parts of our game, go back to the video and look at what it is, and then I think the other one is just player impact - what players are or are not making impacts in the game."
The Predators will head home to regroup on Monday before hosting the Chicago Blackhawks on both Tuesday and Wednesday, and while there are positives to build on, Nashville knows there is plenty of room for improvement as well.
"We know we have to be better," Ellis said. "We played well, but not well enough, and 'well' is not going to win a lot of games in this division."

Notes:
Defenseman Luca Sbisa made his Predators debut on Sunday night. The Swiss defenseman dished out three hits in 11:58 of time on ice.
Defensemen Matt Benning and Jarred Tinordi were scratched for Nashville on Sunday.
The Predators will return home to host the Chicago Blackhawks in a back-to-back set on Tuesday (7 p.m. CT) and Wednesday (6:30 p.m.) at Bridgestone Arena before heading back on the road to Tampa and Florida next weekend.