The Stars played well Thursday night in some regards -- they didn't give up a lot, created some good chances, but when the final horn sounded, they were on the wrong side of the scoreboard in a 3-2 loss to the Blues in Game 1 of their second-round series.
"We did a lot of positive things. I think we have another level to go to," said Stars center Jason Spezza. "I think we can be better than we were tonight. There was some stuff to build off for sure."
Still, it was tough sledding against the Blues, who kept the Stars pretty well in check through the first two periods and then relied on some superb netminding from Jordan Binnington to hold off big Dallas push in the third period.
"I thought we had depth to our attack," said Stars coach Jim Montgomery. "They did a good job of blocking shots and getting some sticks on some passes, but for the most part, we were better offensively than I expected in Game 1 and we have to continue to get better because tonight wasn't good enough."
The Stars had a good push early, but the Blues scored on their first shot of the game to take a 1-0 lead. Robby Fabbri tallied from the right circle off the rush, beating Stars goaltender Ben Bishop five-hole at the 5:57 mark.
"Puck's rolling. I don't think he's trying to go five-hole. Kind of fans on it and it goes five-hole," said Bishop. "Sometimes when they're trying to shoot somewhere else and ends up fanning five-hole, that's how it goes in. Kind of an unfortunate break, but it happens sometimes."
The Stars killed off a St. Louis power play early in the second period, got some life and scored midway through the period to tie the game. John Klingberg took a drop pass from Mats Zuccarello at the St. Louis blue line, weaved his way to the bottom of the right circle and set up Spezza, who scored on a one-timer from the left circle at the 10:25 mark to make it a 1-1 game.
But the Blues regained the lead by scoring on their second power play of the night when Vladimir Tarasenko scored from the top of the left circle at 18:03 of the second.
Tarasenko struck again at 3:51 of the third to push the St. Louis lead to 3-1, driving past Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen on the rush and roofing a shot over Bishop from close range.
Binnington was sharp in the third, making 16 of his 29 saves on the night as the Stars pushed hard to get back in the game. The Stars finally got another goal on the Blues goaltender when Jamie Benn tallied from close range on a Dallas power play with 2:17 remaining to cut the lead to 3-2, but the Stars couldn't get the equalizer and the Blues held on for a Game 1 victory.
"It's going to be a chess match for the whole series," said Benn. "We had our pushes; they had theirs. Going to go back and forth all series and it's only going to get harder from here."
